Community Corner

After a Long Struggle, Infant Ruby Jane Is Laid to Rest

A large crowd pays tribute to the baby who died Friday morning after a lifelong battle with a rare disease. She needed a liver transplant, but it never happened.

Ruby Jane Taylor couldn't talk, barely had time to live. She was 7 months and 7 days old when she died in the wee hours of Aug. 12. She had needed a liver transplant for the last four months. It never came.

But the supporters of the little girl—and her young family—they came. Did they ever.

In a show of support that filled the overflow of the  in Rancho Santa Margarita, people who knew Ruby Jane and her parents—and those who didn't—paid their respects to the little girl whom mother Ani and father Matt called their "little jewel."

Find out what's happening in Rancho Santa Margaritawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At one point, Ani Taylor's father, Craig Bewsey, asked Ruby Jane's family to stand, and the first few center rows in the church did.

"Now those of you who never have met Ruby—would you please stand?" Bewsey asked. 

Find out what's happening in Rancho Santa Margaritawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

About half of the estimated 600 in attendance rose to their feet.

"Truly, truly amazing," Bewsey said. "She has truly impacted hundreds, if not thousands, of lives."

Continue to check Patch for a story by John Crandall that will , but also nationwide as she battled Caroli disease and her family waited for a donor.

And to read the story of Ruby Jane that Patch published a month ago, as the little girl's condition took an agonizing turn for the worse, click on .


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