Our story mirrors that of countless families. It was an ordinary Tuesday evening in October, the kind where we returned home to a dimly lit house following football practice. In the midst of the hustle and bustle to get dinner started, feed the dogs, and complete homework, my 16-year-old son caught us off guard with a simple question, "Hey, Mom, do you think this lump on my neck is ever going to go away?"
In that fleeting moment when my fingers met the lump, time seemed to freeze. The dread was instant, stealing my breath away. For the next four weeks, we embarked on a series of tests and waited anxiously for news about the severity of the cancer.
Discovering that your child has cancer is as nightmarish as you might imagine. Fortunately, we were among the fortunate ones, as his cancer was highly treatable. While it promised to be a challenging year, there was a glimmer of hope that he would pull through. Yet, it became apparent that this trying period would not just affect my 16-year-old; it would cast a shadow over my other two children as well. Countless nights, my husband and I found ourselves moving between three different bedrooms, consoling three young hearts burdened by this unforgiving disease. No matter how hard we tried, cancer remained the unspoken presence in our home, an elephant in the room we couldn't ignore.
We considered ourselves lucky that our ordeal only lasted a year. For many families, the battle never ends. The fight to save your child takes over every facet of your life, and when you have other children, it's often challenging to meet their needs. That's when we realized the significance of creating positive memories, ones that could rekindle the joy within our family unit.
Graycens Story:
It was through this yearlong journey of forging positivity from the depths of despair and overwhelming fear and sadness that "Kids Know Best" came into being. My mother is known for her popular phase "turn lemons into lemonade," and that's exactly what I did. My younger brother and I conceived the idea of offering the siblings of cancer patients "joyful experiences." We hope that the funds this organization raises will be used to treat a sibling and their parent to an afternoon of lunch and a show or to send a sibling and their dad to a Knicks game in the evening.
I saw first hand how hard it was for my parents to find the time for a break from the relentless demands of caring for a sick child. My parents were either taking care of my brother or running around to make sure that my younger brother and I had a feeling of normalcy in our every day life. It was not until my brother was better that I realized how difficult things were for my parents. Through this organization, our aim is to make it easier for parents to take respite from the ceaseless battle with cancer and share smiles with their children....like our parents did with us.
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