Hiker Died After Being Swept Away in Grand Canyon Flood. How Her Siblings Are Honoring Her Memory Months Later

For the two sisters of Chenoa Nickerson, the Arizona woman who died while hiking in Grand Canyon National Park nearly four months ago, the holiday seasonhas been particularly heartbreaking.

“It's going to be our first round of holidays without Chenoa,” Tamara Morales, 34, tells PEOPLE.

“It's been really hard,” adds Kyra Farkas, 31. “She bought a house a couple houses down from mine here in Arizona a couple months ago, and she was raising my son with me. He misses her a lot. He still looks for her every day, and it's been really tough....We miss her a ton.”

On Aug. 22, Chenoa, who turned 33 that day, and her husband, Andrew Nickerson, were hiking in the park when she was swept away in a flash flood that struck Havasu Creek, according to the National Park Service (NPS). A group rafters rescued Andrew, but Chenoa went missing.

Three days later, following a search and rescue operation, the NPS announced that Chenoa’s body was discovered by a commercial river trip near river mile 176 in the Colorado River. 

Now her siblings have turned a tragic situation into a charitable endeavor to honor their loved one and express their gratitude to the Grand Canyon National Park Search and Rescue program, wich was involved in the operation to find her. Called the Chenoa’s Forever Fund, the initiative is raising money to support the program.

“Grand Canyon Search and Rescue was able to bring our family that closure of recovering her and bringing her home,” says Tamara.

Born in Luxembourg, Chenoa and her family moved to the U.S. in 1993, according to her obituary. In addition to Tamara and Kyra, Chenoa had another sibling, a brother named Janosh, now 29.

“She was just the brightest light,” says Tamara. “She was the best part of everyone's day. We as siblings always said that she was the best of all of us."

"There was never an adventure that was too big for her," continues Tamara, "which is why she adventured all over the world. She lived in Germany, she lived in Ireland. She lived on the East Coast with us when we were younger as a family, and followed Kyra out to Arizona to be close to her."

Adds Kyra. “I never met someone who didn't like her. She just was really a stranger to nobody and would just talk to absolutely anybody about anything and was just like the sweetest girl. I mean, just really a stranger to nobody."

A businesswoman, Chenoa had interests that included the performing arts, travel and the outdoors, but "being an aunt was definitely her favorite" thing, according to Tamara.

“She loved being an aunt to Kyra's son, my nephew. He was the light of her life," adds Tamara, who also welcomed a son in October. "He was her favorite person on this earth, and she was greatly looking forward to being an aunt to my new baby.”

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The sisters say that their family had previously visited the Grand Canyon when Chenoa was a child. “This was before GPS,” Tamara says. “Chenoa must have gotten some of her fearlessness from my mom, because my mom was really brave to pack the four of us up and dri -

'Someone's Got to Do It': Vi,...

ve us across the country. But that's just who my parents were."

Recalling what happened in August, Kyra was with a small group when "she just got washed away."

Although the family filed a missing person's report as soon as they could, Kyra says that the area where her sister was hiking was "one of the most remote place in the entire country."

“There's no police there, there's no one to call," she says. "And so it was pretty difficult that first night to get in contact.”

One source of comfort for the sisters was the efforts of the Grand Canyon National Park Search and Rescue, which kept them constantly updated about the operation.

“They searched for her regardless of the outcome,” says Tamara. “And we had all faith and confidence that they were going to find them. It was truly amazing because on social media, we had complete strangers commenting, 'Oh, Grand Canyon Search and Rescue is looking for her? They are the best at what they do. They're going to find her. She is in good hands.' "

"That was especially comforting to hear," she adds. "To have a loved one go missing is a torture that I would not wish upon anyone.”

Even as the search for Chenoa continued, her family knew they wanted to do something for Grand Canyon National Park Search and Rescue, which led to the fund.

“We wanted to be extremely purposeful with where these efforts and donations were going,” says Tamara. “And that was the search and rescue because we really just want other families to be able to experience that reunification, whether it's in rescue or in recovery.”

“While Chenoa was missing,” says Kyra, “we were like, ‘These people are amazing. No matter what happens here, our new life mission is search and rescue advocacy. They were relentless in finding her and we're so thankful for that...closure really is such a gift.”

A celebration of life service for Chenoa was held in Gilbert on Nov. 10. “It was really special to see everybody who just knew and loved her for her whole life," says Kyra. “That's really where the healing happens is with each other and just sharing our stories and being together. I think it made it real that she's gone because we have everybody together, and it's like, 'Well, where's Chenoa?’ ”

Both sisters feel that the fund is something Chenoa would "totally be on board" with.

“I think she's still probably shouting from the rooftops up there saying, ‘They brought me home and they gave my family closure,’ ” says Kyra. “There's just no words for that.”

“If it was one of us, Kyra, myself or my brother who needed help, Chenoa would have been championing search and rescue,” Tamara says. “She would have been going door to door saying, ‘Do you know how amazing these people Grand Canyon National Park Search and Rescue are? They are out there. They are in the air, they're in the water, they're on foot. They're looking for my sibling.’ We just feel like this fund would be most reflective of who she was as a person and how we could best honor her and remember her.”

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