Since we couldn’t mail out Christmas cards to everyone who has followed Tyler’s journey, we wanted to share our 2012 card and newsletter via CaringBridge. The artwork on the card displays a portion of a mural painted by Tyler’s classmates at Chapelgate. In a beautiful tribute, fellow student Ben Feeney depicts an angel welcoming Tyler into heaven. The angel wears the “We Love Tyler” t-shirt another classmate designed as a show of support to Tyler during his illness.
Christmas Newsletter 2012
It was difficult to choose our Christmas cards this year, so we created our own. Actually, it’s been a couple years since we’ve sent out our card/newsletter combo. In 2010, we simply took a break from the hustle and bustle.
During the 2011 holiday season, Tyler was fighting for his life at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and we were totally focused on his battle with leukemia. If it hadn’t been for his September 2011 diagnosis, our December 2011 year-in-review would have contained news of Tyler’s trip to Boston to perform in a play, his 10-day excursion to minister to children in the slums of Costa Rica’s capital city, his first trip to NYC, his third trip to Daytona Beach, his fourth year as a crew leader at our church’s VBS, his first and very successful attempt at being a junior camp counselor, his high school retreat and the beginning of his 10th grade year at Chapelgate Christian Academy.
For those first eight months of 2011, a very healthy, happy Tyler completed all those activities and more. Right before our eyes, he transformed into a young man, 6’1″ and still growing, but more importantly, into a young man who was making his kind, compassionate, humorous impact on his local and wider world and turning his childhood faith into something personal and real. Our hopes for our boy as he approached his 15th birthday included high school graduation, college and a master’s degree (he had chosen to study occupational therapy), becoming a husband and father. But mostly we hoped he would have a joyful journey on his way to becoming a man of God.
On September 6th, 2011, all those hopes drastically changed. We hoped he would beat his horrible, sudden onset of a rare and deadly type of leukemia. We hoped the chemotherapy which required months in the hospital wouldn’t permanently destroy his body or his brain. We hoped he could stay on track with his peers by completing 10th grade with hospital tutors. We hoped for a donor for his bone marrow transplant. We hoped his life post bone marrow transplant wouldn’t break his strong spirit. We hoped his cancer would not return. We hoped he would come out of this with a stronger faith and character than ever.
On February 8th, 2012, our hopes for our boy changed course once again. We now hoped he would survive the complications resulting from his bone marrow transplant prep. During his final seven weeks in pediatric intensive care, as he lay in a coma on life support, we hoped that the Tyler who eventually woke up would resemble in some way the Tyler we’d raised for 15 years.
On March 29th, 2012, when our son’s strong and courageous heart finally stopped beating, our hopes again transformed. We hoped that his friends and the many thousands who had prayed for his healing wouldn’t turn away from God. We hoped that our vivid memories of his suffering would fade in comparison to memories of the very blessed and joy-filled life he led. We hoped that the incredible wave of prayer, faith, and miracles during his seven-month battle would gain momentum, and that Tyler’s death would continue to impact the world the way his life did.
Throughout the process of having our lives turned upside down, one aspect of our hope never veered off course: our fervent belief in the God of all hope. We were and continue to be buoyed by our faith and the prayers of countless people. Christmas represents the special hope we have due to God’s incarnation as a baby. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Tyler had a deep and personal faith in his Savior. We rejoice to know he is with Him now and that we will see him once again.
Because we can rejoice for our son, we can also take joy in other aspects of our lives, now lived without him. In 2012 Michelle and TJ celebrated their 6th wedding anniversary! Michelle began her 3rd year teaching at Glen Burnie Park Elementary School, and is enjoying her 5th graders. TJ still successfully pursues his engineering career and blesses us by being a wonderful husband and son-in-law. Ron continues to help them ready their home here in Maryland for sale, after which they hope to settle in NC before starting a family.
Ron and I couldn’t be more grateful for each other and for our amazing support network in the face of unimaginable loss. We are both back to work at our jobs which allowed us such tremendous flexibility during Tyler’s illness. Ron has thrown himself into a backyard shed/garage project in Tyler’s honor – their original plan had been to build it together. Dianne will be following in Tyler’s footsteps by joining his school’s 2013 missions trip to Costa Rica. The children he’d met there remembered him and prayed for him during his battle. Now Dianne will get to meet them and share his amazing story of faith and hope. Through it all, despite our grief, hope continues to shine bright.
It seems right that the sentiment on our Christmas card this year focuses on the hope of the season. Our Christmas wish for you? “May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
Love, Ron and Dianne