Lucas--Borrowed Post

First, an update:
We are heading to MD Anderson on Thursday to meet with Dr. Zage. I'll post about that soon.

To the post:
When Eva was diagnosed, I had several people contact me through my blog that I did not know. They were parents of children with neuroblastoma.

My world was suddenly opened to this incredibly welcoming, very strong group of folks who have just one thing in common. Our kids all had neuroblastoma.

One of the first people to write to me was Pat Lacey, father of Will. Will is quite an amazing boy and I have loved getting to "know" his family online. Pat posted something a couple of days ago that I just had to steal for my own blog.

This is a photo essay of one families' struggle with neuroblastoma with their gorgeous son, Lucas. I do have to warn you in advance of clicking on the links. These photos are incredibly strong and some are taken as he was dying. There are no words to describe how much these incredibly personal photographs moved me. So much so, I wrote the Tran's to see if I could add it to my blog.

With all due respect to Pat, here's his post:

As I mentioned one time in the past, I have a large number of bookmarks of children whose stories I follow. Some of these bookmarks have been edited so that the date these children were killed by this disease has been added after their name.

I occasionally, when I feel prepared, go in and 'visit' these families. Sometimes you are devasted to see the impact the loss has had on these families, other times you gain hope to see that they have somehow started finding joy again.

Today, I visited the page for Lucas Tran that I have not visited for a while. I have always found the entries to be so insightful, honest, and so open. I was absolutely leveled by what I found today.

The photo essay done by Lucas's uncle is extraordinarily powerful and brutally honest. The post from Lucas's site is below:

"My only sibling, Tommy (we call him Thong at home), who was a mechanical engineer turned professional photographer, created a story of Lucas' life from the beautiful photos he took (minus the last picture which was taken by Chinh). Tommy lived with us for about a year before Kira arrived and frequently visited afterward. He was here shortly after Lucas was born, shortly after diagnosis, during surgery in NY, spent most of the summer in NY with us last year, and cut his trip in Africa short when I told him Lucas was dying.

Lucas was very fond of Tommy and gave him an endearing nickname that he made up--Dodi (dough-dee). In addition to hiding from Tommy and being chased by him, Lucas loved playing with Tommy's tripod, camera with an enormous lens and detached flash, pda phone, and stickering his suitcase. Thanks for the tribute Thong and, more importantly, for being such a big part of Lucas' life (and ours). Click here to view the photos and captions. You may need to maximize your window to see the captions. Warning: some of the photos are from the time of his death."