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LEHI — Inside the Harding home, there's no shortage of smiles.
But it's taken a long time to get here after a devastating accident one year ago.
“That was a really, really hard night,” said Harding.
March 28, 2015, is a single day and a single moment Nikki Harding has prayed she could take back.
“Everything was changed,” said Harding.
That evening Nikki was pulling out of her driveway, and all five of her children were playing outside.
“We had a rule in our cul-de-sac that if somebody was driving, the kids had to touch the grass, and so all of our kids knew it and they were really good about following that rule,” said Harding. “So I told them, ‘I’m leaving you guys, touch the grass. And so all of them, Tui included, touched the grass and so I backed out and turned.”
But her youngest son, 2-year-old Tui, didn't stay.
“Just in a split second that I decided I was pulling away, he darted across the street in his wiggle car, and so I remember feeling like the impact and I stopped,” Harding said.
“I screamed and I ran to the street to see Tui and I think both of us — kind of we were obviously clinging on to any kind of hope that he would be OK, but I think both of us knew that it wasn't going to be OK,” said Harding.
A life-altering moment for her family and community. But she says the single most difficult part of it all was explaining everything to her four other children.
“That was just the hardest moment of my life because they wanted to know what happened,” said a sobbing Harding.
At times, Harding said she didn't know what to do. The pain was unimaginable and unbearable. But she knew she had to do something to keep her and her family going.
“I just needed to figure out what I was going to do,” said Harding. “Ultimately, what sparked the idea is just not wanting to constantly focus on the tragedy.”
And that's how Tui's Treasures started. The idea: superhero action figures placed all over the world, with a special message attached.
“If we're having a hard day as a family, if the kids are having a hard day, we grab a Tui Treasure, and we go out to ice cream and we'll leave it,” said Harding.
Unwavering community support. Talking about the happy and hard times. Putting a positive twist on a painful memory has kept smiles outside and inside the Harding home.
“Such a positive thing to see other people smile because of his memory,” said Harding.
