• Courtesy
• Olive Sedon

Olive Elizabeth Sedon died on May 16, 2024, in Bradford, Vt., after finally succumbing to a long and protracted illness.

Olive burst like a comet into her family’s life when she was born on January 6, 2002. Even as a baby, Olive had a fully developed personality that was by turns dramatic, hilarious, stunningly precocious and heartbreakingly sweet. Very particular in her tastes and preferences, Olive loved to lay in bed with her parents many mornings and look at books of flower photos while drinking a blueberry smoothie. Before she was a year old, she walked and talked, and she had a lot to say. She would challenge (and sometimes confound) her parents to explain things such as how the universe could possibly be limitless or why animals so often had to suffer.

Olive grew up at her family’s home on Dickerman Hill in Tunbridge. She loved to roam the gardens, fields and forests, delighting in the insects and animals she would encounter. Olive had a strong affinity and empathy for animals her entire life. She bonded with her pet mice and dogs but also with baby birds that had fallen from their nests. With a brave, adventurous spirit and a limitless imagination, she led her little brother, Metro, on many quests and arduous journeys to discover the dragons and other strange creatures that inhabited distant woods and pastures. This spirit never left her, and whether it was living on a sailboat in the North Atlantic, climbing a challenging peak or completing an epic mountain bike ride, Olive almost never said no to an adventure. A natural athlete, Olive easily mastered difficult skills and especially enjoyed snowboarding, surfing and mountain biking.

• Courtesy
• Olive Sedon

Her great physical beauty belied a fierce determination and inner strength that could, at times, lead her into and out of peril. This, combined with her intellectual and emotional intelligence and sharp wit, made Olive a unique and unforgettable person to everyone who met her. She loved street art and loud, fast rock and roll. She loved fashion. She loved spicy food. She loved to drive. She had a special compassion for people at the margins of life and people who suffered. Olive had a full heart.

In recent years, Olive struggled with a debilitating and progressive mental illness that she and her family tried so hard to overcome. Olive lived with a great deal of pain from this. In the last months of her life, she mounted a strong effort to get better, eliminating any kind of self-medication, practicing yoga and walking, and reengaging with her formal education. She faced her challenges bravely until the very end.

Olive is survived by her mom, Allison Ericson; her dad, Daniel Sedon; and her brothers, Jon Maxwell Wright and Metro Jackson Sedon. Olive will be buried in the Vermont Forest Cemetery in Roxbury. A remembrance of life ceremony will be held to honor Olive later this summer.