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LEHI — It was Mother Theresa who said, “not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” According to her mother, this was, not only one of Alex Wallin’s favorite quotes, but the way she lived her life.
In 2010, Alex was featured by KSL for being one of two young women honored at the Swedish Society’s St. Lucia pageant for her service to others, despite also battling many health complications including the life-threatening Addison’s disease. It was on Dec. 4 at the age of 25, however, that Alex finally lost the battle.
Addison's disease is a disorder that occurs when the body produces insufficient amounts of certain hormones, namely cortisol and aldosterone, produced by the adrenal glands. These hormones help the body cope with stress and without them, stress can very negatively affect the body. Addison's occurs in all age groups and affects both sexes and can be life-threatening. President John F. Kennedy was one of the best-known Addison's disease sufferers, but it was kept secret during his time as president.
Her family was shocked by Alex’s unanticipated death and, though Alex was always in and out of the hospital, her passing was unexpected.
“I thought, oh by the time she’s 40 or 50 she might have serious health issues,” Alex’s mother, Faith Wallin, said. “I mean she really had a lot of issues, I think we’ve been in the hospital at least 8 times this year and she had a multiple array of diseases. But really, ultimately, her Addison’s and her hyperparathyroid was what finally got to her.”
Since her passing, however, her mother and others have continued to see the effects of Alex’s dedication to service.
St. Lucia, whom Alex portrayed six years ago in the yearly pageant, is a symbol of charity, thoughtfulness, hope and light, and Alex has been just that, Wallin said. Since her passing, many of Alex’s friends have posted or messaged on her Facebook, sharing their own personal stories of how Alex helped them.
19-year-old with rare disease honored
Despite a relentless disease that's destroying parts of her body, a 19-year-old Utah college student has chosen a path to serve others. She was one of two young women recognized at this year's St. Lucia celebration.“One girl messaged me and said, ‘She’s the reason I’m still alive today… I was really struggling… but when she saw me she acted like she had seen her best friend,'” Wallin said.
According to Wallin, another girl also wrote and described Alex as an “angel” drawn to her to help during a time in her life when she was hopeless, resentful, depressed and alone, even surrounded by her own demons.
“Sometimes we celebrate people who do these big, huge things... but sometimes it’s the little things we do, like reading to the elderly or doing things like that, and that’s kind of what Alex embodied,” Wallin said. “She didn’t do anything really big but she did do a lot of little things for people that just made differences in people’s lives.”
Six years ago, when KSL first featured Alex, she expressed a desire to go into a medical profession and be a nurse. However, after realizing that her health complications might limit her ability, she decided to re-route and become a medical assistant so she could work in a doctor’s office.
Alex attended the College of Eastern Utah, Salt Lake Community College as well as Dixie State University and was committed to accomplishing her goal, though it was difficult due to her health and she would frequently have to leave for medical reasons.
At the time of her passing she was on medical leave from school, waiting until she felt capable of continuing.
Right out of high school, however, Alex was a Certified Nursing Assistant and worked with seniors in rest homes.
“She had one gentleman (at a rest home) that passed away when she was working, and the family asked her to come to the funeral because he had mentioned her so many times because she was so kind and so cute to him,” Wallin said.
According to her mother, Alex loved caring for the elderly. One woman that Alex cared for was having trouble reading her scriptures because of her failing eyesight. The woman's family did not visit her frequently, so Alex went and bought her large-print scriptures so that she could read them herself.
“The most important thing for her was family, her faith and her friends,” Wallin said.
Alex was close with her family, including her cousins, second cousins and little brother.
“She meant the world to me,” Alex’s brother, Thomas Wallin, said. “She was always trying to make other people smile.”
According to Faith Wallin, Alex was the kind of person that would worry about others before herself, even reaching out to help friends and family during her stays in the hospital, though many of them never knew how sick she really was.
At the end of her life, Alex was taking about 18 different medications for the myriad of different diseases and health complications she suffered.
She also ran a Facebook page called Addison’s Disease Awareness that she used to spread understanding of the disease.
Alex's cousin, Julia Hammond, also recently began a GoFundMe* on behalf of the Wallin family to help pay for the funeral and burial expenses.
“At her funeral I brought all of her medications that she was taking and they didn’t fit, because there was 18 of them, they didn’t fit in one of those big gallon Ziplocs,” Wallin said. “So I stuffed them into two and it literally stuffed and filled two bags and I just wanted people to know at the funeral what she was taking and so I pulled them out… and there was an audible gasp.”
According to Faith Wallin, though many were unaware of Alex’s struggles, she would constantly make an effort to help others feel loved, even in her most painful moments.
“She made (everyone) feel like they were her favorite, because they really were. they all felt that from her because she really meant it. She was just willing to give away pieces of her heart. It was kind of who she was,” Wallin said.
Liesl is a web reporter at KSL.com and a student at Brigham Young University. You can email her at lnielsen@ksl.com.
