Ashley Noelle Watkins' Obituary
Ashley Noelle Watkins arrived in this world on Sunday, June 13, 1985, a tiny, beautiful ball of energy and enthusiasm. She passed away on Sunday, September 28, 2025. Ashley’s incredible strength and perseverance inspired all who knew her. She lived 40 years, much longer than predicted. No matter how much her body betrayed her, she was rarely without a big smile. Affected by uncontrollable seizures that took away more and more of her abilities as time went on, she never lost her joy to be alive, her optimism in the face of adversities, and her love of others. She was a social girl who loved a party, and any time there were at least two other people in the vicinity, it was a party for her. She loved to be outside in nature. She loved babies, children, and animals (except snakes). She loved music. Ashley made true friends at school and more recently in her first homes away from her family.
She adored her family and loved spending time with them. She was especially close to her brother, and he knows she will be watching over all of us. Just as he knows that her death on his birthday was a special gift that will continue to connect them forever. Only a little over a year apart, they shared every aspect of her life journey together.
Ashley is survived by, and will be truly missed by, her mother, Myra Suzanne Dutton, her father, William Brian Watkins, her brother, William Paul Watkins, her sister, Cali Elizabeth Johnson, and her two nephews, William Shawn David Watkins and Brayden Thomas Hinkle, as well as her grandmother, Bonnie Watkins, her aunts and uncles, and many cousins. She has joined her grandfather, Carl Watkins, and her grandmother, Delight Oakley, in the next world where they were waiting to embrace her. Although we will always miss her, we know that Ashley is no longer in pain or discomfort. That she is happy and whole and dancing somewhere nearby. That she is smiling at us, as she always did, and that she is with us still. Ashley was a bright light in a sometimes dark world. We will always cherish our memories of her.
Join us to celebrate her life at Laketon Township Cemetery on Thursday, October 2, 2025, at 11am with a lunch at Mullally park to follow. Memorial gifts can be made to the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Neurology Research Department, or the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan.
Arrangements through The Sytsema Chapel of Sytsema Funeral and Cremation Service, 737 Apple Ave. Muskegon, MI. 49442. Please consider signing the family’s online guestbook and share memories at https://sytsemafh.com
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