Tatum Brought Our Family Happiness

Our son was diagnosed last September with acute lymphoblastic leukemia that turned out to be Philadelphia chromosome positive. For a month he fought with great courage, even though the treatments hurt him a lot and the medication had many bad and ultimately lethal side effects for him. But I (his father) will always remember that one of his happy times in that month was the day they brought him his Bag of Fun. We had just finished his third chemo treatment, blood transfusions to try to raise his hemoglobin level, an unsuccessful spinal tap, and a bone marrow sample taken. A pretty painful day for the poor guy, as you can imagine. We were sitting quietly and thinking about everything, slowly preparing for the drive back to our home, when the nurse on the unit said, ‘Oh yeah, I have something for you.’ Then, when she brought in the bag, he was really delighted, and laughed a lot at the selection of great things it had as we went through it together. He died within two weeks of that day, but it was one of the last fun and happy times we had together. I will always remember it, and I thank you. I know that our son does too. Please keep up your good work, and God bless you.