CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — Alicia Holden, 17, formerly of Marshalltown, passed away on March 4 from a brain bleed. She battled cancer for a decade and dreamed of one day opening up a restaurant.

Alicia Jane Holden, 17, wasn’t like most teenagers. She understood her own mortality, even planning her final arrangements. She died March 4 at her home in Grottoes, Virginia after experiencing a brain bleed. Alicia had been recovering from a brain stem stroke. She had endured Stage 2 Ependymoma with characteristics of Stage 3 Anaplastic — a highly aggressive brain tumor — beginning in 2014, at age 6.

A Celebration of Life is scheduled for today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mitchell Family Funeral Home, 1209 Iowa Ave. W. She was the daughter of Jon Holden and Cassandra (Parker) O’Connell.

Alicia was born on Jan. 26, 2008, in Marshalltown, and was enrolled in the West Marshall School District before she and her family relocated to Virginia in 2023.

“Her last semester at West Marshall before we moved and then the first part of 2023, she really found herself,” Jon Holden said. “She didn’t let the words of others really hurt her or deter her from what she was trying to do, and that’s really when her artwork started to take off. West Marshall School actually had some of her artwork up at the last art show. She was very artsy. She was very hands on. She could make all kinds of different things out of rubber bands: bumblebees, a Care Bear, the snake from ‘Beetlejuice,’ and she taught herself how to sew. She could draw. If she wanted to learn something, she would watch it on YouTube.”

Her taste in music encompassed Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and the rapper NF, but she never lost her soft spot for Care Bears or cats.

Discovering creative ways to pass the time was born out of countless road trips first to Iowa City, then to St. Jude’s and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, and other facilities, where she received rounds of radiation and chemotherapy and endured several medical procedures.

Alicia’s tumor had stabilized, but there was still a part that hadn’t been reachable by the doctors. She agreed to an additional surgery, and was informed of the risks. During the procedure on Sept. 13, 2023, she suffered a brain stem stroke, resulting in paralysis.

She got care at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore and made progress with physical therapy. In early February 2025, she had her first taste of Pepsi following the brain stem stroke.

“She was going to have a swallow study done so she could eat real food, because she was able to actually swallow soups and lighter foods,” Holden noted. “She was looking forward to that. Her movement had started getting better. Her attitude was at a higher level. They were talking about her spending time off the breathing machine. She was pushing the machine to breathe…We had the funds come in from my bonus that we were going to buy a wheelchair-accessible vehicle so we could start traveling around with her. Everything was on the up. You could look up the mountain, you could see the top. You could see that happiness there, and that’s when everything just took a turn.”

On the morning of February 16, she endured a brain aneurysm (brain bleed) that caused her heart rate to surge, liver output to spike and extreme body temperature fluctuations. She was hospitalized and sedated.

“The first aneurysm we were lucky to be right in front of her when it happened: me, her brother Bentley and sister Autom,” he said. “We spent two and a half weeks in the hospital with that repair and everything. We were released to go home at 4:30 p.m. We had a good night. She had some laughs, and unfortunately, between 2:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. (on March 4) she had a second brain aneurysm, and that’s what took her.”

Alicia loved cooking and baking. She dreamed of someday opening a restaurant called I Don’t Know — a phrase people use when deciding where to eat, Holden explained of the name.

“She was gonna have me in the kitchen cooking, along with Autom. She was gonna be out there taking orders and baking, because we’d have a part that was the restaurant, and then a part that would be a bakery. Her brother and Autom’s fiancé Kanin were going to be busboys. She had it all drawn out, everything.”

The family is considering opening up an eatery in her honor, either in Marshalltown or Virginia. It’s still in the planning stages. To contribute financially to the family, go to: https://account.venmo.com/u/JHolden78.