New Jersey girl, 6, remembered as 'bubbly' with 'haunting beauty' following tragic badminton accident: family

The father of a 6-year-old New Jersey girl who died from head trauma after a freak accident involving a badminton racket on the final day of a family vacation recalled his daughter's "bubbly" personality and the afternoon their family changed forever.

Jesse Morgan, whose 6-year-old daughter Lucy unexpectedly died after playing with her siblings, shared with Fox News Digital memories about his daughter.

"Her personality was very bubbly and also reserved at times," he said. "Once you got to know her, she was very, very outspoken and a lot of fun. She was a tough kid and played soccer really hard."

Jesse recalled looking at pictures of Lucy with his daughter and wife, Bethany.

"My wife just made the comment that her beauty is haunting. Some of those pictures are just, she's just so gorgeous, and her personality is so incredible," he said.

Jesse recalled that Lucy was the "main cuddler" of their family of six.

"I just remember her coming up with her bedhead [hair] and just wanting to sit with you for a long time. Not restless, just wants to lie with you and snuggle up."

Jesse, a pastor at Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway, New Jersey, told Fox News Digital the family's vacation was part of his sabbatical.

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"We were on our first week [of sabbatical] and it was, according to her, the best week of her life," he said. "We did so many fun things."

Photos shared by the family showed Lucy and her three siblings, Silas, Shiloh and Atticus, fishing and kayaking in Limerick, Maine, before tragedy struck.

The family's idyllic vacation came to a sudden halt May 30, after the family enjoyed a leisurely lunch.

Jesse said he and his wife were reading and resting in the backyard, and the children were playing badminton, when their son came to them "very concerned."

"We went out, and we saw what had happened, which was just indescribable terror going from so quiet, so calm to an incredibly traumatic experience," Jesse said.

Lucy was unexpectedly struck when the shaft of the racket, which was being used by her 10-year-old brother, broke apart and flew into her skull.

"Due to a freak accident with a racquet that broke on a downward swing, a sharp piece had entered Lucy’s skull while she was sitting on the sideline and caused catastrophic injury," Jesse explained in a series of blog posts on his blog, New Creation Living. "She was still breathing but unresponsive as I held her with Bethany crying out to God."

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Lucy was taken to a local hospital before being moved to a hospital in Portland, Maine.

Four days after the accident, Lucy succumbed to her injury.

"After significant thorough testing and even more repeated tests to be certain, brain death was declared at 1:32 a.m. on June 5, and her heart stopped beating around 4 a.m.," Jesse wrote. 

"Lucy was with Jesus."

The parents held onto the hope that Lucy "believed in Jesus' death and resurrection."

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"Four weeks ago she asked Bethany how to be with God and be saved," Jesse wrote. "Bethany explained it to her and offered to pray with her, but ‘Miss Independent’ wanted to do it herself. She went to her room and prayed to God to forgive her and that she believed in Jesus' death and resurrection."

"What a gift," he said.

Jesse wrote that he and his wife were comforted after finding her prayer journal, saying it felt "as if God was writing with her."

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"How a 6-year-old journals like this is beyond me. After that, she seemed to get writer’s block and just draw beautiful pictures of Bible stories and hearts."

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