My uncle Mark had just recently gotten married in Mexico. He married a very nice woman that had two kids of her own. That did not faze my uncle because he too had two kids of his own and being there cousin, I know they are two very wild and crazy children so adding two mild and well mannered kids would be no big deal. My uncle’s kid’s names are Cole (nine) and Alexis (seven), and Kerry’s kids names are Ashley (twelve) and Tucker (six). The new marriage between their families’s seemed to fit together seamlessly. The kids played with each other and fought with each other just like real brothers and sisters. Everything was going good for everyone in the family.
The first holiday with the new members of the family was Thanksgiving and everything turned out great. Everybody welcomed them and accepted them as if they were always a part of our family. There never really seemed to a weird family difference situation that came up whether it was about traditions, customs or anything. When Christmas came around the entire family gathered at my Aunt Mary’s house as we do for every Christmas Eve. All the kids get a name of one other cousin and buy them a gift for Christmas. That year we had two more names to buy for. You could tell Ashley and Tucker were still shy around their new family members. When it was their turn to open a present everything changed though. Their shyness turned to joy as they opened a present that they had long waited for.
Several Months had passed since I had seen or talked to our new family members. It was summer now. My family and I have a camper in Pine City, MN that we go to nearly every weekend in the summer. It’s not what you think it is. It’s not some old rotten piece of trash trailer that we made livable. It’s a 38 foot trailer that has everything a house does. It even has two TV’s and a full kitchen and bathroom.
We often invite other people who have trailer to come camping with us and see how nice it is up there. One of the couples my parents wanted to come up was Mark and Kerry along with the kids. They also have a nice camper that will fit everyone in their family comfortably. May parents and my aunt and uncle went golfing on the golf course that is inside the campground while the kids went swimming in the pool right next to the campground office.
All of my cousins had just gotten brand new bikes so they were very excited to go biking down by the lake. Tucker the youngest of my cousins was still just a little boy and was thrilled when he could ride his new bright yellow bike with matching training wheels. I remember Tucker coming back to camp crying. He wasn’t crying because he scraped his leg, but because he couldn’t ride his bike. He had to give it a rest while his leg healed up.
The next week school started. I was in seventh grade and still getting used to having to do something every day. I just got home from my second day of school and was just looking forward to relaxing just like I did the whole summer. When my dad got home from work I could tell something was wrong. He didn’t say hello when he walked into the house or anything, all he was just stand in the kitchen with a sad look on his face. I walked in the kitchen and asked him what was wrong. He said “Tucker is sick. He was picked up from school today and brought to the hospital because he said his stomach hurt.” I was trying to figure out what it could have been. Maybe he just ate something bad or just had an upset stomach. My dad then told me “Tucker has a disease called Hepatoblastoma. It’s a very rare disease found in kids and it may not be curable.” Hepatoblastoma is an uncommon malignant liver neoplasm occurring in infants and children and composed of tissue resembling fetal or mature liver cells or bile ducts. It’s like a cancer from what I could understand of it.
A couple days later I saw my uncle and he seemed to be handling it very well but there was still a nervous tone in his voice. He said that Kerry was really shaken up about the whole deal. We asked if we could go visit tucker and Kerry but Mark said it would not be a good idea yet. Tucker started to go through treatment which for him was chemotherapy. He lost all of his hair and became very pale. It was sad to see. Everybody in the family got a little teary eyed when ever Tucker came up in conversation.
Mark and Kerry were struggling to keep up with bills from all of tuckers treatments and were falling behind. My dad wanted to help them somehow. He came up with an idea to have a benefit to raise money for tuckers cause.
For many months my parents and all of my other aunts and uncles got together and planned the whole thing. The benefit was held at Old Chicago’s party room at the end of January. We had gotten many companies to donate money and some even donated some really nice silent auction items. The items we got ranged from hockey sticks signed by the Colorado Avalanche hockey team as well as a hockey stick signed by Dave Christian a member of the 1980 Olympic USA hockey team to paintings and handmade knives from friends of ours or others.
For entertainment we had our band play. The band had many members including me, my mom and dad, my dad’s cousin and friend, Kerry’s dad and my friend Mike along with 3 other people that would fill in every once in a while. We played everything from 50’s music all the way up to today’s popular music. We also had a comedian perform. When the whole benefit was done with, over fifteen hundred people showed up and we raised over fifteen thousand dollars to help pay for bills and whatever else Mark, Kerry and Tucker needed to help them through their hard times.
A few months later life went on as normal. Tucker was still going through treatment and hanging in there. One day again when I got home from school, I was informed that Tucker had passed away. He was only seven years old. The growth in his abdomen was just too much for his body to handle. I didn’t know how to take it. I had never lost a family member before, at least not while I was old enough to understand what happened. I just took the information in and thought about what is going to change now.
When we got to the wake to see tucker, we finally saw Kerry she was in great pain. I went up to her and gave her a big hug. She was crying, but still managed to say that everything is going to be ok. When we when in the room with Tucker I just stared at my little cousin. Again I didn’t even know what to do or think. I noticed the growth he had. It made him look as if he had a little beer belly. Everyone sat down listened to the speakers talk about Tuckers short life and how great it was. When they started to play music that’s when it finally hit me. I had just lost a family member. I had barely gotten to know him in the short time that his mom was married to my uncle.
This time around, the holidays were not as cheerful. Memories of Tucker were still very apparent in everyone’s mind and it was easy to tell. Everyone was a little more quiet thinking about how there is one less person at Christmas this year.