Angel was born October 7th 2002. He was a happy, funny, loving, could be stubborn at times like any other child. He loved playing with his Legos, singing, SpongeBob Square Pants, and trains.
Sometime in March 2007, Angel started not feeling well with flu-like symptoms. We took him into the hospital to get checked out and were told he was fine, that he had something that was going around at the time and he would start getting better when it went away. It did not go away and Angel started to get worse. We took him in again and asked for a blood test to be done. His primary doctor happened to be working at the time and we told him our concerns and he did a blood test. When he came back in the room to give us the results, I could see the concern on his face. He didn’t tell us much, just that we had to go to the main hospital right away. At the time it was MeritCare hospital. When we got to the hospital, Angel was admitted and brought to a room. We asked what was going on and the doctor told us we think your son has cancer. It is the worst news you could ever hear. Every emotion you can ever feel, sadness, anger, you feel scared. Is our child going to be ok? “Does our son have cancer or not?” I remember Smiley asking. The doctor looked at us and said “Yes he does have cancer.” I remember just holding on to my baby in my arms and trying so very hard to be strong but I couldn’t stop the tears from coming.
They took Angel into surgery right away to insert the port in his chest where he would be getting chemotherapy, treatments, blood draws, blood transfusions, platelets and any other treatments he may have needed.
Angel started his 1st round of chemo treatment that same day. Angel was so strong through it all. He did have his moments through. I remember one time he pulled off the tubes he was connected to because he was so frustrated and just wanted to go home.
Angel fought a hard battle from March to September. On October 1st, they took him off the breathing machines.
What people do not know is that children with cancer receive the same treatment as a grown adult receives. Childhood cancer does not get a lot of funding in order to be able to find more cures and treatments. They only receive 4% of funding.
Angel was taking medication at the time that was too much for his little body. He had a stroke due to the steroids he was on, got a blood clot in his brain. He was in a coma from the middle of September to October 1st when he was taken off the breathing machines. I held Angel in my arms as they shut off the machines.
Our son was only 4 years old. He didn’t get a chance to see his 5th birthday. He would have turned 5 on October 7th. Instead of planning his birthday, we were planning his funeral.
We instantly knew we had to do more to bring awareness to childhood cancer. I hear people say that childhood cancer is rare. Childhood cancer is not rare. You just don’t hear people talk about it. It needs to be spoken about. We are these children’s voices, these family’s voices that watch as their children go through this battle. Because we were once there and are still living through this every single day that our son has been gone.
After we lost Angel, Smiley and I did everything we could to try to bring awareness to childhood cancer. Smiley and his friend Chris Lord came up with having a car show every year along with our car club members to help raise money for fighting childhood cancer. We keep none of the money, we split the money we make in half. Half of the money goes to the Roger Maris Cancer Center playroom, the other half goes to a non-profit organization CureSearch which uses all donated funding to help make different medications for kids and research to help find cures for different kinds of children’s cancer. They fight to make treatments and cures possible for the 43 children diagnosed with cancer each day. If you would like more information please go to curesearch.org.
After our car show is over, we along with the car club members go shopping and buy movies, books, coloring books, games, pretty much anything the playroom needs.
This is our way of fighting back and helping other families going through what we once did. I know Angel is standing beside us. Angel will forever be remembered. His is loved & missed every day.
We thank our car club members and our community for standing beside us in the fight against childhood cancer.
Thank you,
Smiley, Rebecca, Dazzaray
Ismael JR & our Angel Baby
Originals Car Club 