"I want to share this with you all. We met this family when we were staying at Ronald McDonald house. They're daughter had a transplant almost the same time as Jacob, but I think she had a few more days into her transplant. Her name is Katie and at the time she was 3 years old. She's doing GREAT with her new bone marrow. It's been a year now and she’s clear from all that can possible go wrong, meaning she has a strong marrow now. One of the nurses’s told me Katie’s dad has this website and he kept a diary of all that Katie went through daily. Her dad wrote about Jacob when he found out Jake was no longer with us. He forgot Jakes name and writes him as “little boy” and he was 12. And you know it really didn’t matter to me because my Jake left a little piece of him in this man’s life for ever. I consider it as Jake’s trade mark… " - Malinda - Jakes mom
Katie’s dad writes:
"More wonderful results, 100%, 100%, 100%.
No signs of any of Katie's old cells and Katie has now been in remission for 9+ months.
Katie just continues to march on. Thank God.
Last year during Easter we were living at the Ronald McDonald House and I hid Easter Eggs so Katie and one of the boys, who was also staying at Ronald McDonald house and recovering from a BMT, could look for them.
Katie and the boy had a lot of fun and even though they were both very weak they searched their little hearts out to find every egg I had hidden. The boy was 11 years old, so he actually pointed out most of the eggs for Katie to find and also made sure that he did not find more than his fare share.
This little boy was diagnosed with B-Cell Leukemia and had been fighting his disease for several years. One of his dreams was to get better so that he could play basketball outside.
Most of the kids and most of the families at the house stay pretty much to themselves and do not actually interact very much. Out of all of the families and all of the other kids this little boy was the one that I did interact with the most and he was just a wonderful person with dreams of beating his disease and for his future.
During the last week Linda I received the news that this little boy had not beaten his cancer and he is no longer with us.
I can still remember his smiling face as he was helping Katie search for the Easter eggs and following her around, because every time she bent down to pick up a new egg another egg would fall from her basket.
The emotions that I felt when I learned that the little boy was no longer with us, were of deep sorrow for him because of how long and how hard he fought to beat his disease and how caring he was of the other people around him and yet he still was not able to achieve his dream. Also the realizations of what Katie has been going through could not be any clearer then when we hear of other children to whom we have met and lived with that are no longer with us.
There was one evening when Katie and I were in the community kitchen with the little boy that I will always remember. We were talking about him and his friends and he asked if Katie had any friends. I told him that Katie was still pretty young and had not really made many friends yet. To that the little boy responded that Jesus was her friend and that Jesus was his friend and that Jesus loved him. The thing that I will remember most is not the words that the little boy spoke but how content the little boy was when he spoke the words.
You see at the age of eleven this little boy was quite aware of his disease and his prognoses, yet he kept the best possible out look he could, and I never heard him complain, even though he had reason to. This little boy was years younger than I yet in so many ways he had already experienced more in his life than anyone who was 5 times his age.
I think he was actually trying to help me (and not Katie with his comments) to be at peace, he could probably sense more than most just how scared parents are when their children are sick and to tell me that he was at peace and that I should be too.
This Easter I have so much to be thankful for, and tomorrow on Easter Sunday at church I will say a prayer that little boy has risen up to take his place at the side of Jesus, and that he is now being rewarded in heaven for the courage and bravery and love that he showed us and all that knew him while he was with us.
I will also pray that Katie continues to keep marching on disease free and that she has set an example of how to beat her disease, and that her ability to lead the way will also help others that come after her."
