Parents Name New Bergen Pizzeria After Late Daughter, 6

NEW MILFORD, NJ — Among Melisa Sofia's favorites were pizza, Justin Bieber, and drawing. She liked having her nails painted and being read "Goodnight Moon."

Sofia's parents have opened a pizza place in her memory eight years after her sudden and tragic death.

"She absolutely loved pizza," Sofia's father, Robert said. "She was just a beautiful child. She went from being a perfectly happy 6-and-a-half-year-old girl to not being here."

Robert and his wife, Kelly opened Melisa's Pizza in Wallington in early September. Melisa's older brother, Ron runs it.

"We have her picture up on the wall," Robert said. "Everyone really seems to like it, and we're starting to build a clientele. We've had a lot of people from New Milford come."

The pizzeria is just one way people have kept Sofia's memory alive.

A reading corner in the Media Center of Berkley Street Elementary School was dedicated in her memory in 2012. Her mother painted a picture of her that was placed there. The cul-de-sac where she lived was renamed "Melisa Sofia Way" and a tree was planted in her named at the Little League field.

Sofia died in her sleep on June 23, 2011. She died of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. The disorder is usually caused by an infection that reaches the heart, according to the National Institute of Health.

Related: Berkley Keeps Late Kindergartner's Spirit Alive

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