YOU REMEMBERED

AUGUST 11th, 2019

After a few days in the PICU, you were moved to the Oncology wing of CHOP. You took your first steps here. We started to see more of the physical effects of the tumor. Weakness on your left side. You couldn’t walk at all. Your arm got more and more “fidgety”. the way you talked, the emotionless voice, was so different than how you were just days ago. And you kept asking the same questions, like Dory from Finding Nemo. Still, you remembered everything before the surgery. Everything. It was more of the new memories that were harder to hold on to. As your parents, our hearts were broken for you. You weren’t smiling or laughing at any of my silly jokes. You weren’t weeping or screaming out – unlike your mom and I. We didn’t know if you’d recover from this. But you would show us. you would start to say that you wanted to go home. That you wanted to be there on the first day of school. you were already setting a goal for yourself. It was here that she did her first art therapy – she made sun catchers. We also started your Memory Book, so we could help you remember your days. In some ways, that’s kind of what this website – a continuation of your memory book. Maybe it’s more my memory book. Either way, I hope you can look back and see how far you’ve come, how strong you remain, and how loved you are.