Dad Shares Heartbreaking Photo of Son Comforting Age 4 Sister Dying of Cancer
Addy’s grandmother first noticed that the 2-year-old was walking funny on a family trip to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Concerned, she pointed it out to Matt, Addy’s dad, and he promised to keep an eye on it; he thought the limp was just due to a growth spurt.
But Addy’s symptoms only got worse. She began stumbling more and her hands even began to tremble.
“She was having trouble feeding herself because all her food would fall off her fork or spoon before it made it to her mouth. A few more days passed and she couldn’t walk down the hallway without holding a hand or feeling her way along the wall. We were worried to say the least and made a point to bring it up with her doctor at her checkup the next week,” Matt said.
After a series of appointments, MRI’s, and tests, doctor’s told Addy’s parents that their daughter had diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, an aggressive tumor growing that grows on the brain stem.
DIPG grows in a specific part of the brain stem called the pons which controls essential functions like breathing, swallowing, eyesight, and balance. As the tumor grows, these functions are affected. Because of the placement of the tumor, surgery is not an option for treatment and survival rates are extremely low.
Addy responded well to radiation treatment at first, but the cancer eventually began to spread to other parts of her body. Her parents desperately searched for different treatment options all over the world; she was later accepted into an experimental treatment program located in Monterrey, Mexico.
The Sooter family also started a Facebook group hoping to get as many people to pray for their daughter as possible.
In late-May 2018 Addy began to lose mobility and develop pain in her spine. Her family began preparing for the inevitable; they admitted her into hospice and continued to pray and search for other treatment options.
Then, at the beginning of June, Addy’s symptoms started to progress very quickly. Even though they were still holding on to hope, they knew that the end of little Addy’s life was coming.
In a heartbreaking post on the Facebook group, Matt shared a picture of Addy’s older brother, Jackson, saying goodbye. He said that his son didn’t want to leave his sister’s side and that they weren’t going to make him.
“A little boy should not have to say goodbye to his partner in crime, his play mate, his best friend, his little sister,” the post read. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. But this is the broken world we live in.”
The picture of the young boy comforting his dying sister has since gone viral.
The next day, Matt shared that Addy had passed away early in the morning. “At 1:04a.m. Our sweet little girl received the miraculous healing that we’ve all been praying for for so long and ran into the arms of Jesus. She passed from this life to the next just as she had lived: stubbornly but also peacefully, and surrounded by family,” he said.
The family held a service celebrating the girl’s life on June 9, 2018. Instead of flowers, her family asked that people consider donating to the Michael Mosier Defeat DIPG Foundation, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, or Ronald MacDonald House Charities of Arkansas.
Before she was buried, Addy had one last gift to give. She donated her tumors, brain, and spine to scientific research to help save future children. “Our sweet girl loved helping people and giving gifts so we thought this would be an excellent way of showing her giving heart,” her dad wrote.
Even in the midst of complete heartbreak and grief, Matt continued to recognize God’s hand in the situation. He ended the post announcing his daughter’s death saying, “Always remember: God is in this situation, He’s up to something, and He’s up to something GOOD.”
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