New York Teen Who Drowned a Day Before 18th Birthday Had a 'Huge Heart,' Mom Says: 'Absolutely Beautiful'
Courtesy of Christine Marceline
The mother of Danielle Marceline — a teen girl who drowned just a day before her 18th birthday earlier this month — is remembering her daughter as a young woman with immense talent and an even bigger heart.
Danielle drowned while swimming at Cocoa Beach in Florida on Dec. 3, her mom, Christine Marceline, tells PEOPLE. The Cocoa Beach Police Department said the 17-year-old was swept away by a current.
Christine says she and her daughter were visiting Florida for a "girls' getaway weekend" to celebrate Danielle's 18th birthday on Dec. 4.
"She was just absolutely beautiful," Christine says. "I mean, she had so much charisma and everything. It was just unbelievable how touched people were."
RELATED: Woman, 22, Dies After Getting Trapped in Her Car for 18 Hours During Blizzard: 'She Was Scared'
Courtesy of Christine Marceline
Christine says that Danielle was a student at Catholic Central High, a school she transferred to during the COVID-19 pandemic after growing up in New York's Lansingburgh Central School District.
She was a dancer for 10 years after learning when she was two years old, played travel basketball since she was in sixth grade, and was a member of her local high school volleyball team.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.
Though she was shy on the surface, Danielle had an "overpowering personality" that Christine says "came out at home." Danielle reminded her mother of Raven Symone's character Olivia Kendall on The Cosby Show when she was a child.
"She was this crazy girl, like putting on her ballet costume with multicolored high tops and dancing in the living room," Christine recalls. "She didn't even play with toys. She just danced."
Courtesy of Christine Marceline
Danielle also "had a huge heart" and was remarkably loyal to her friends. "Especially with girl stuff, there was no boy or anyone that was going to make her disloyal to her friends," Christine explains.
"She was very loyal to the people she cared about," she adds. "She didn't have a large social network of girlfriends, but she had a core friend, and that core friend was very important to her."
RELATED: 10 Skiers Found Alive After Feared Missing in Austria Avalanche; One Seriously Injured
She was also unafraid to push back against anyone who dared to mistreat her or anyone else.
"Danielle didn't put up with it," her mom says. "If she saw somebody at school being picked on, she said something because she just knew that was wrong — especially if somebody was in special education."
Courtesy of Christine Marceline
Underneath the surface, however, Danielle struggled with social anxiety — especially after the COVID-19 pandemic struck. "[It] was really hard on her," Christine says, adding that "going back to school and that environment" was a difficult transition for the teen.
"She was just so shy, and her anxiety of being in a large crowd or anything had really taken a toll on her," her mom explains. "So I don't think that people realized that."
RELATED: 3 Long Island Teens Killed in Car Crash: 'Speechless'
A GoFundMe started for Danielle's family has now garnered nearly $40,000 in donations. Christine says she and her immediate family were unaware that a GoFundMe had been started to support them until after it gained traction online.
Upon looking it up, however, the family "could not believe" their eyes.
"When we saw this … it really did feel like all of this support is just holding us up," the mom says. "It was holding my husband and me up because all we wanted to do was just collapse because we just were overcome with grief."
Courtesy of Christine Marceline
Christine remains thankful for the outpouring of support from both strangers and friends as she and her family process the "overwhelming" loss.
RELATED: Mother and Daughter, 12, Killed in Calif. Apartment Fire, Grandmother Suffered 'Significant Burns'
"It's so hard to believe," she says. "We just feel like we're in someone else's life or a nightmare we're waiting to wake up from."
