Renee Cleveland often woke up to the smell of coffee. She would lie in bed until she could hear the tiptoe of her daughter, mug in hand.
Autumn Cleveland would quietly set the mug on her mother’s nightstand so she could start her day with a hot cup of coffee.
Autumn Cleveland Courtesy of Brooke Cleveland
“When she picked you, when she loved you, family or otherwise, there wasn’t any other love like hers,” Renee Cleveland said in a phone interview this week. “Her love languages were different than most. She showed you in tiny ways.”
The 23-year-old from Newport News, Virginia, had packed up her car last Thursday to move to Maine, a state she had fallen in love with, her mom said.
She stayed in touch with her family through Saturday evening and texted her parents that she loved them, said her father, Michael Cleveland. But after a few days went by and her family couldn’t reach her, they posted on social media that she was missing asked a search team to help find her.
“Every ounce of us thought we were going to come up here … and see her, spoil her and make sure that she was good to go,” Renee Cleveland said. “My heart hurts.”
Her body was found Monday afternoon in her parked car in Dayton. Maine State Police continue to investigate her death and are awaiting autopsy results before releasing a cause and manner of death.
Autumn Cleveland, left, with her sister, Brooke Cleveland. Courtesy of Brooke Cleveland
Her parents said Autumn was shy, soft-spoken and anxious, but she had a few close friendships. She was very selective about who she let into her life, her mom said.
She loved Taylor Swift, cats and every type of sweet treat, especially chocolate. Her sister Brooke Cleveland said the two of them always stopped at the closest ice cream shop after going hiking together. Autumn never tried a flavor she didn’t like, her sister said.
“If she ever shared any of (her sweets) with you, you knew you that you were in her good graces,” Brooke Cleveland said.
When she was comfortable, Autumn could be the loudest person in the room. Even her own laugh could catch her off guard, her mother said.
“When she would bust out laughing, or she knew that she was going to do something … funny, she would turn really red,” Renee Cleveland said.
She excelled in school and made the Dean’s List at Liberty University, where she attended for a year before deciding she wanted to travel instead.
She was born in Oregon and spent a lot of her childhood in Virginia. Her family moved a lot growing up, and she became used to traveling when her parents split. She “had a bedroom everywhere,” whether it was with her parents, her sister’s couch in Virginia, with her brothers in Washington, or her aunt’s spare bedroom in Oregon, which was always reserved for her.
She was especially close with her younger brother Christopher and her sister Brooke, her father said.
“My sister is very selfless,” Brooke Cleveland said. “It wouldn’t matter if she was having the worst day ever, if somebody else was having a slightly bad day she would make sure to be there for them.”
After stuffing her bags with gifts for her relatives, she decided to move to Tampa last September. Autumn Cleveland was always prepared with research and itineraries, her mother said. And by the time she got there, she had a job and a room rented, her father said.
When she decided to move on a few months later, she joined her dad on a cross-country road trip and then headed to Virginia, where she stayed until she packed up to move to Maine.
Autumn Cleveland wanted to see the world before establishing her roots, her mother said. She wished for a future and a family, to someday be married and have children. She made plans to visit her family in the coming months to go wedding dress shopping for her sister, for holidays and her birthday on Nov. 14.
“Anybody that met her fell in love with her,” Michael Cleveland said. “I know dads say that about all of their daughters, but it truly is true.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-05 13:01:00
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