Darrel's Memorial Playground
Connect With Us:
  • Home
  • What is Neuroblastoma?
    • Research Updates
  • About Us
    • Fundraising
    • Related Sites
  • Blogs
  • Quotes
  • Events
  • Images
    • Awareness Images
    • Neuroblastoma Awareness
    • Seasonal Images
    • A Parent's Journey
    • Videos

Nov 21/07 - Eulogy #1: Rebecca

6/13/2011

0 Comments

 

Eulogy 1: Rebecca 
 
Below is the eulogy written by Darrel's mother Rebecca for his funeral on 
September 14, 2007.

Cancer...."Mrs Robb , your son  has stage 4 neuroblastoma"- and so it began – the desperate attempt to save Darrel's life.

It's been 2 years. Darrel has been through many surgeries, endless 
chemotherapy, radiation, bone marrow transplant, CT scans, MRI's, many MIBG's, 
bone scans, countless transfusions, needles and pokes. WOW – that 
is hard to comprehend and leaves you breathless. He's been through 
more in his short life than anyone – especially a child – should ever have to 
endure with out complaint – just  the simple question – What do we 
have to do today mom? Once before one of his many bone marrow 
aspirates I was trying to hide my anxiety and tears from him. He 
looked at me and said "I think it hurts you more than me mom, it's really not 
that bad – I just fall asleep and then it's over ." …… and 
back to video games and having fun, while us grown ups worry about  the
test results. 

He never looked too far into the future. Just the usual count downs
to birthdays,  Christmas, or the next fun trip planned. He never
minded his many trips to the clinic at Grand River Hospital. He
quite often counted the sleeps, eager to scam  another bag of
model magic. His loud happy voice bringing a smile to the great
staff – especially Patti, who's Darrel's nurse 
there. He  lived in the moment – as all children do, always
excited to get home to play  with Lady – his cute pup – and scrap with his 
sisters. 

Between hospital visits, tests and appointments we struggled to keep life as normal as
possible for the Robb children – even though they practically lived at Grandma
and Grandpa's house. For the first 7-8 months of treatment, Darrel
and I lived at one hospital or the other nearly full time, making
time at home very special indeed.

We made the best of the situation, and I even learned to play video
games. Zelda was a joint adventure we undertook, and worked
together battling the bad guys, trying  to save princess Zelda again.  As
we almost finished our second  adventure...Darrel died.

The plans we had been talking about are finally falling into place and becoming
reality for us. The past few days have been filled with tears, hugs
and the relief that knowing he will no longer be in pain. For some
time now life has  felt like a long marathon, with the game plan and the finish
line changing as Darrel kept fighting and hung on to life. Nothing
but a sheer will to live and his fierce determination kept him with us for the
last few days.

These last days were  filled with stories – or commercials as Darrel called them –
playing through his  mind. He was remembering the highlights from
his summer: the  swings at Wonderland; flying in the helicopter; eating ice
cream; camping;  catching the mommy fish that was bigger than
grandma's at trout pond; and riding Daniel at Uncle Henry's – who by the way is
pretty cool – for a  farmer ---as Darrel matter of factly said.

He never beat around the bush – when he had something to say – which was most of 
the time – everyone heard it. There was no keeping secrets. Daddy was always kept informed of any purchases I made, and  boy did he  let the nurses know how things should be done.  When they pissed  him off – which they did every morning at 6:00 when they woke him for blood work; he tried to pull out his toy sword which he had named his nurse 
wacker. Most of the time I had snuck it out of his bed – depending 
who was on duty.

If you are wondering  why there are a bottle of flintstones around – one weekend he
ran out of candy. He enjoyed giving out vitamans to the girls and
wanted to  be in charge of that job. Well – a couple days later we
noticed  that the bottle was way too light – about 40 or so were
missing. Turns out he thought they were pretty tasty and if he
had liked the orange ones the whole bottle would have been
gone. When questioned by us – it was all Daddy's fault for letting
him run out of ring pops.

So this is it. A parents ultimate nightmare. Your child is
in a box next  to you. How do you get through it? How
does life go  on? As I kiss him on the forehead for the last time
and nestle his stuffed toy in the coffin beside him we all weep
silently. We all have a big family hug, the four who are
left. His battle is over. We love you Darrel,
  Goodbye.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    The majority of all these entries were written by Darrel's father, Stephen.  For those that are not, efforts have been made to give proper credit where it is due.

    The bulk of the posts are in the June 2011 Archives Section, as that is when I transferred them over to this site.  Category Tags should allow you to find entries easier.

    I've tried to correct spacing issues on many of the entries, as most of the older ones have been copied from different sites I've used in the past. I apologize if some have been overlooked.

    Categories

    All
    Dads In Grief
    Life 2007
    Life 2008
    Life 2009
    Life 2010
    Life 2011
    Life 2012
    Life 2013
    Life 2014
    Life 2015
    Life 2016
    Life 2017
    Life 2018
    Life 2019
    Life 2020
    Life 2021
    Life 2022
    May 26th
    Sept 9th
    Writing And Poetry

    Archives

    September 2022
    May 2022
    September 2021
    May 2021
    September 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    September 2019
    May 2019
    September 2018
    May 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    May 2017
    September 2016
    May 2016
    September 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.