Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OREM — A local singer, dancer and businesswoman accomplished a lot in her short life, but according to her sister, she will be remembered for her love.
Lexie Parra, 24, died unexpectedly early Sunday morning. Though her family doesn't know the exact cause yet, Melissa Parra said she'd been in several recent car accidents and was experiencing migraines. This leads them to wonder if she had a brain aneurism.
"She was ridiculously accomplished," Melissa Parra said.
At 18 years old, Lexie Parra saw a lot of success as she sold door-to-door for Vivint. At 19, she and her now ex-husband started a restaurant called The Rollup Cafe, where she set up a stage for her and Melissa to sing together.
They later sold the restaurant, but Lexie Parra continued on as a general manager at Clear Solar, where she was very successful, Melissa Parra said.
Melissa Parra said her sister was very positive and learned how to overcome the many difficulties her family faced growing up.
"She learned how to be forgiving and how to love people and she was just constantly trying to serve people and reach out and love them and serve them and she was always trying to better herself," Melissa Parra said. Lexie Parra treated her friends as family and made strangers feel like family, her sister said. Frequently, she would bring people to her restaurant and feed them for free.
"She was just really giving, really loving, and she wanted everyone to feel loved," Melissa Parra said.
Together, Melissa and Lexie Parra had a YouTube channel where they'd post videos of them performing songs. Lexie sang, danced, played the guitar and wrote music.
A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Lexie told Melissa she believed in the church 100 percent.
"She said this quote: 'I just wanna be the answer to everyone's prayers,'" Melissa Parra said.
She was also really good to her mom, Maria.
"She's … been really inspired lately, she's been so full of the spirit and just reading her scriptures and just praying, she … wanted to know the truth of why she was here," Melissa Parra said.
Lexie loved better than anyone Melissa had ever met. Hours before she died, she was helping Melissa organize her room when she was stressed out.
"She was always so concerned with comforting me," Melissa Parra said. "I'm the oldest sister, but even when she got in that car accident, I was so worried when she called me, I got there to the place and she left the ambulance, she's like, 'guys I have to go, my sister just got here and I gotta comfort her.'"
Everything fueled and inspired Lexie, and she desired to help people achieve success, Melissa Parra said.
"These jobs that she would have, she would just completely dive into them," Melissa Parra said.
One morning, she showed up at her sister's house and told her she hadn't slept in three days because she was too excited and there was so much to do.
Lexie's main message was service, that relationships matter more than materialism, and love, Melissa Parra said.
The community has shown the effect she had on them, as well. Dozens of posts quickly spread all over social media Sunday and Monday, giving examples of her love and sparking the use of the hashtag, #LoveLikeLexie.
Posted by Trevor Milton on Monday, October 12, 2015
