Mom organizes state trooper dance in honor of daughter who died of rare cancer

— -- A moving video of a group of Texas state troopers dancing with their little girls at a father-daughter dance has captured the heart of the internet.

But the story behind the video is also one of broken hearts.

The troopers came together on May 20 as part of a fundraising and awareness event for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), "highly aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumors found at the base of the brain," according to the Dana Farber Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center website. The disease took the life of 4-year-old Jade Bridier just five days after she was diagnosed.

Vicky Bridier, Jade's mom, told ABC News that the family — her; her husband, Troy Bridier, a trooper; Jade; and daughter Mila, 2 — was on vacation in Mexico last August.

As the trip was coming to an end, it became apparent something was wrong with Jade.

"She slipped and hit the back of her head, but at first she seemed fine," Vicky Bridier said, recalling the last night of their trip. "But that night at dinner, her eyes were crossed. I asked her, 'Jade are you being silly, or do your eyes hurt?' She said she was playing but also said, 'I can see two of you, Mommy, but that's OK because I love you.'"

The next day, on the plane home, Jade's eyes were still crossed.

Over the next few days, which were filled with CT scans and appointments with eye and brain specialists, Jade deteriorated rapidly. She began to lose her ability to speak and reverted to the sign language she learned as an infant to communicate with her mother.

"She was such a bright little girl. She was always so calm and observant. She was never fussy because she knew over 300 signs before she could talk," Bridier said. Once she could speak, she was inquisitive, her mom said. It made watching her lose her ability to communicate that much harder.

She also lost her ability to eat and to control her bladder as the family waited to find out what was happening to her.

As they waited for the results of an MRI, Bridier said, other troopers filled the waiting room.

"Those troopers were there for us," she told ABC News.

On Aug. 24, 2016, Jade was diagnosed with DIPG. By Aug. 29, she was gone.

Bridier said in the weeks after Jade's death, she and her husband were "lost." They went on a road trip, driving with no particular destination in mind. At some point, they decided to go to Niagara Falls. During their visit, the falls were illuminated in gold to highlight pediatric cancer awareness.

"I knew she was with me," Bridier said. It was on the trip that she began to research DIPG. She searched for associations for the disease that were raising funds to research a cure.

"I had told Jade I would fight for her until the day I died. I would fight for all the other children with DIPG. There is no cure."

It took some time for Bridier to be ready, but when she was, she organized an event called Jade's Royal Ball, in conjunction with an organization called the Cure Starts Now.

"Before she was diagnosed with DIPG," Bridier said, "she asked me if she could go to a father-daughter dance with her dad."

Jade had seen photos of similar events near their home in College Station.

"I promised her I would get her the most beautiful princess dress and she would dance with her daddy."

That day was never to come. Instead, the ball was held in her honor and, Bridier said, to "honor the troopers who had been by our side the whole time."

The song they played for the fathers and daughters was "The Dance," by Garth Brooks. It was the same song that played at Jade's funeral. While Bridier has "mixed emotions" about all the attention the video of the troopers dancing with the little girls is getting, she said, she's hoping it will raise awareness of DIPG, which kills an estimated 300 children each year in the United States.

The event was poignant for Bridier, who said Mila keeps the family members going. But they never let a day pass without remembering Jade.

"It was a joy and an honor," Bridier said, "to be her mother for the short time that I was."