Years ago I had in my care a three-year-old who was dying from leukemia. He was the brightest little child I had ever met. He seemed wise far beyond his years and sometimes said the dearest things imaginable.
While he was king of the roost at home, he was also very aware of the needs of others and expressed these concerns quite well. He had been sick for some time when I met him and his loving and devoted parents did everything they could to help him.
During his illness, he was treated at a large medical center and tumor clinic where other children came for care. He got to know many of them well and was keenly aware of how they were feeling. He even knew when some of them died. As for his condition, the doctors and nurses tried and tried but could not make him well again.
He stayed at home and was cared for there, but when he was close to dying, he went back into the hospital. Although we think children do not know when they are near death, trust me, on some level they do.
Just across the hall from him were other children whom he had befriended. “I want to give my things to my friends,” he said one evening. One by one he asked his dad and mom to take down from the ceiling some of his little cars and trucks they had pinned there for him. He knew he would not need them any more. He knew exactly whom he wanted to give each toy to and, as always, he was very clear about it.
This little one was concerned for others right up to the last hours of his life. If ever there was an example of “life-giving action,” this was it. He died peacefully in his parents’ arms the next morning.
