Fort Collins family mourns Aurora Masters, 5, who died in swing accident

Aurora Masters, 5, of Fort Collins, died on May 13, 2024, five days after a tragic backyard accident. (Photo provided by the Masters family)

Five-year-old Aurora Rae Masters shone like a beacon for her family in Fort Collins.

“She came to me when I was in a hospital with really bad mental health,” Tom Masters, Aurora’s father, said in an interview with The Denver Post on Monday, explaining how Aurora had rekindled his passion for life. “It felt like there was something almost magical about her.”

But on May 8, Aurora was critically injured after she was strangled by a swing set she was playing with in her backyard, an incident that Fort Collins police called a “tragic accident.” She was taken to the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, the family posted on their GoFundMe page.

About 20 family members and friends from Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas flocked to her bedside.

On May 11, an MRI revealed that Aurora had suffered permanent brain damage due to inadequate oxygen supply. Aurora’s family placed her in end-of-life care and she died on May 13th.

This weekend, the Aurora Borealis lit up Colorado’s night sky in colorful waves.

“I have never seen a pink aurora borealis before, and when I later looked up what I could find on the internet, the pink aurora borealis was due to lack of oxygen, which injured my daughter’s brain,” Krystal Masters, Aurora’s mother, said in an interview. “The Northern Lights themselves over Aurora, the city where my Aurora was (in the hospital), and she was pink. It just felt like a little nod, like, ‘Hey, I’m fine.'”

Aurora’s magnetic personality and bubbly spirit created community everywhere she went, her parents said. In 2019, Tom took Aurora to several open mic nights and she danced, sang and clapped with the artists and was affectionately called “the music baby.” The Masters family made lasting connections at these open mics, and Tom and Krystal attribute the creation of this stalwart community to Aurora.

“At night it would have just been a bunch of ships passing by, but people stopped and zoomed in because Aurora was so magnetic,” Tom said.

Over the past two weeks, Tom and Krystal have been inundated with anecdotes about their little girl – the only child they have together – as friends and acquaintances share the impact Aurora has had on them.

“I hear all these stories that she was like that to everyone,” Tom said. “She was literally just having fun, going around bringing her light and giving it away for free.”

“Aurora had the biggest and warmest spirit I have ever seen. Her energy impressed everyone around her with smiles and laughter,” Rachel Brady, a colleague of Krystal’s mother, wrote on the family’s GoFundMe page.

“Aurora always hugged my little boy Charlie and was the first to recognize him as a member of the community even though he was only a year old,” wrote Natalia Lynch, who attended the same church as the Masters. “I will miss watching their interactions and seeing them sitting so proudly in the front row.”

Through GoFundMe, organized by Aurora’s great-aunt Brenda Kennedy, the community raised more than $31,000 for the Masters family. The funds will be used for an end-of-life celebration and memorial service, and any leftover money will be donated to organizations honoring Aurora, according to updates posted on the site.