Full life

Today was a sad day for my family. My Grandma’s husband, Lee, passed away this morning. After being married to their spouses for 50+ years and neighbors to one another, my Grandma and Lee got married 5 years ago. In those five years, they traveled the world together and truly lived up until the end of Lee’s life. We can all only hope to live as full of a life as Lee lived in his 89 years.

I wanted to share a story Lee wrote for our boys when Bennett was having a tough time in the middle of Carter’s treatment.

A Life of Changes

Once upon a time there was a family called Zip. And there was a mom, Mara Zip and the dad, Katt Zip. They had two little boys, one big boy named Kennett and a littler boy named Barter.

One day, they moved. Just like that to another nice house nearby.

The boys had a Grandma named Grammy Ray and even a Great Gramma Larbara, who lived in a big house near the beach and had a neat boat. Whenever they went on the boat, Grammy Ray steered and let Kennett help too.

Things were going along and Kennett was in preschool and suddenly Barter got sick. There was a lot of fuss about it since the doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, called CHOC, found that Barter really had a problem.

He had to take of lot of tests and of course, everybody was worried, when they found out that he had CANCER in his liver. Cancer meant his liver wasn’t working right. All of us need our liver, although we aren’t sure what a liver does, but it’s part of our engine and if a part of your engine is broken, it just won’t go.

So they started giving Barter some medicine to get rid of the cancer. But it made Barter sick and he didn’t feel good and he couldn’t eat his regular food and everybody began to worry about Barter. Of course, when everybody was worrying about Barter, who was worrying about Kennett? Well, occasionally they got busy with Barter’s problems—and he had a lot, and Kennett felt like he was left out.

But here is the good part. Kennett could tell there was a problem. The medicine Barter was taking was so powerful, it made him lose his hair. So Kennett, who was a wonderful big brother wanted his hair off too, so he and his Dad, Katt Zip, shaved their heads too. But as Barter kept having more cancer medicine, called chemo, he didn’t get better.

So everybody worried more. Kennett had to be with babysitters sometimes and with his Grammy Ray, which was all OK but it wasn’t like it used to be before Barter got sick.

Kennett heard all these new words like Chemo and X-ray and CAT SCAN (he wondered what does a cat have to do with Barter’s liver but everybody was too busy to be asked??) and Blog. Kennett never heard the word Blog before and pretty soon everybody was talking about it. It’s sort of a story of Barter’s sickness, but Mara Zip adds to it every day and takes pictures too. What it’s really for is so people will know how Barter is without bothering them with a lot of phone calls.

As it turns out, the summer isn’t so bad for Kennett, because he has camp and sometimes sees his cousin Charlie. One day, Great Gramma Larbara and Grandpa Knee took Kennett and Charlie to the Wild Animal Park. They saw a lot of animals like zebra and lions, but the best part was having their faces painted.

Another word that Kennett kept hearing was Transplant. His mother, Mara Zip, explained that because chemo, the cancer medicine, didn’t get rid of all the cancer in Barter’s liver, then they would have to put in another liver.

So they are waiting to hear if the doctor’s have found a new liver someplace. And when they do, he will go to a hospital where they do this a lot and get the new liver. Kennett will probably stay with his Grammy Ray and Kenny when this happens. But pretty soon Barter will come home with his new liver and everything will be back together again, except…guess what.

Just when Kennett thinks things are going to get back to the way they were before, a new little brother will come to live with them. Suddenly there will be a lot of changes again. But at least they will be all together. It’s just another change in the life of the Zip family. And then they will all live happily ever after.

Bennett loved for me to read him this story. I think he thought this Zip family had it pretty rough. Thanks Lee! You will be missed dearly.