Stories of Lost Children
My Matthew
by Gary Kawka, Sparta, NJ, U.S.A.
We lost our son, Matthew, 18 years old to Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma on December 7, 2005 after a very courageous battle over several months. Matthew was my "butchie", my best friend, the sunshine of my life. We miss him dearly and it is getting worse each and every day. Matthew's story is one of courage and true love. Matthew had developed Autoimmune Hepatitis at age three, and battled this disease successfully for 14 years. Then in April of this year, Matthew started becoming very tired and eventually developed high fevers. Finally, a bone marrow aspiration was done on July 8th and it was identified shortly thereafter that he had non Hodgkin's lymphoma "T" Cell type with the requirement of not only extensive chemo but a bone marrow transplant. Matthew end up having to endure a 4 hour surgery to remove his spleen and many months of chemo. He died as a result of a lung infection and his heart stopped. We spent the last several months with him in three different hospitals and saw firsthand how brave he was. We miss him so much that it is actually very painful. We pray that we will see him again someday in heaven or otherwise we would not be able to go on.
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