If you entered a drawing and were one of 250 people out of sixty million that were chosen to go on a once-in-a-lifetime travel experience, would you take your camera? I would. The travel experience I just described is the journey that we embarked upon with Nick. In the very beginning, the last thing I thought about doing was taking pictures or shooting a video because the journey started off bad and I didn’t think the odds of getting through it were great. Do you really feel like taking pictures of your child, especially if there is a chance that they might die?
Real Life Cancer Story
When Nick was 2 1/2 years old and had his eye removed because of his first cancer (retinoblastoma), we have a very special moment captured on video. When he returned from the hospital following surgery, his face was so swollen that he could not see at all – he was blind. We have a video of Nick standing at a kiddie table, holding on to a small cup of Jell-O and feeling his way around the table to find the chair to sit on. He sits down and he slowly brings his spoon up to his face to eat his Jell-O like it was the way things were going to be. It is one of the saddest moments in our lives but it captures the strength of our little boy. “If you happen to be close to someone that is going on a special journey, a nice gift to bring along to visit might be a disposable camera or find a camera and snap some pictures. In the middle of the most difficult moments of our lives there is always a moment worthy of a memory!”
January 2015 Update
When Nick was battling cancer, the iPhone was barely 2 years old. I would add to this post that you should take pictures of EVERYTHING and if you are able to take videos, I recommend that as well. We see too many videos of people doing horrible things to each other every day on the news but when it comes to our health, we are really far behind.