GALLOWAY, Ohio (WCMH) — Abbie Hauler was a helper, an artist and incredibly supportive friend and sibling.

Her mother said the first thing you’d notice when Abbie walked in the room was her smile. The second thing you’d notice were her big, bright eyes.

“She was just a bright girl, just a very bright spirit, and just wanted to please people,” Angie Hauler said.

Although she was only in eighth grade at Hilliard, Hauler said Abbie already knew she wanted to go into the mental health field when she was older. The second-oldest of five, Abbie’s mom said she was always there for her family.

But she was also a bit of a jokester, and she often teased her siblings.

“She’d walk in, and the second she’d walk in she’d crack one, didn’t matter, she just always had a joke,” said Trisha Griffith, a close family friend of the Haulers.

Abbie’s family is working to keep the memory of her alive. Earlier in December, the 14-year-old came down with type A influenza.

It started as a cough and a fever. Less than a week later, Abbie was dead.

Abbie died on Dec. 19 with a blood clot in her heart. Hauler said the doctor told her blood clots happen in rare cases of influenza A.

“We’ve all been sick. We’ve all been under the weather,” said Hauler. “No one ever thinks when they get sick or their child gets sick with a cold that you’re going to lose them.”

Abbie’s death is the first from the flu in Franklin County in 2022, according to the county public health agency. A Franklin County Public Health spokesperson said the last pediatric flu death in the county was in 2019.

Hauler said the line at Abbie’s showing wrapped around the building, full of people telling her how Abbie changed their lives.

“It was really hard seeing the younger people coming in that are crying in my arms telling me how my daughter affected them, how she helped them through something, how she made a difference in their lives,” said Hauler. “That is what I want her to be remembered for, is changing peoples’ lives. I knew she was a good kid, but I just didn’t know how far it went.”