Mason's tree at school...

Before we left school at the end of June we placed stars that we had decorated around the base of Mason's tree. Each child created a star ( kindergarteners made two) for the area around Mason's tree. Patty and I also made stars. The children shared memories about Mason and decorated their star in a way that they thought Mason would like. While this activity helped in continuing the long good bye and expressing our sense of loss that Mason is no longer in our lives, it also celebrated his life as the children sought ideas and memories about Mason to include in their star.

Click below to see Mason's stars.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18317912@N03/sets/72157606225504333/

Something Mason taught me...

Mason helped me understand that life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. He enjoyed many of those moments and was surrounded by friends and family who remain awed by the beauty of his short life and who still carry those precious moments that they shared with him. My life has been made better because Mason is part of it. Thank you, Mason. I love you.

Thanksgiving has come and gone...

At Thanksgiving time, we made a bulletin board outside our classroom that was entitled We Are Thankful For and then the children wrote a number of things that they were thankful for. One of the submissions was Mason. Although he is not in the class any more and a new child has joined our class in his stead, we are thankful that we had the chance to know Mason and have him in our lives. Thanks for the memories, Mason.

Almost a month has gone by...

It has been almost a month since Mason passed away. We still have his little Spiderman couch in the class and the children love to cuddle up on it. We think of Mason frequently and we miss him.

Mason was a member of our class for a little over a year. During that year, we saw him courageously fighting to beat his cancer. Much of the time he was only able to come to school some days and for an abbreviated time. Often he would only be at school for an hour or two. During those times, however, he was able to be a normal school kid and live life like other kids. That was the point, to provide him with a normal school experience and have him be defined by something other than his cancer.

I believe that God brought his family to me. My wife had died of breast cancer a year before Mason joined my class and I was still grieving her loss when Mason joined my class. I felt at that point that I was the perfect choice for a teacher for him as I understand the fight he was going to be going through and had an inkling of what his parents were facing. I had helped Anne through the operations, the chemo and the radiation. During the year that he was in the class, there were times when he was very tired and feeling sick from his treatments, but he wanted to be at school anyway. Danielle would sometimes bring him in and pass him over to me and he would just settle into my shoulder and I would hold him till he felt ready to get up and interact in the class. The children were always very happy to see him and he loved school.

It's now been a little over two years since my wife died and I feel that helping Mason and his family go through this experience and being there till the end has helped me come to fuller closure on my wife's passing.

Did you know Mason?

I created this blog to write about the experience of having Mason share my life for a little over a year. It also is a place for people to comment about the memories you have of Mason. The other children in the class have begun to share memories about Mason and I am including those in these postings. I conceive of this as a companion to the blog Kirk and Danielle made to chronicle his fight against cancer which, by definition, is about his illness and eventually his death. I would like this to be about his life. He shouldn't be defined by his cancer. I am encouraging everyone who knew him to share memories in the comments. I think he was a wonderful person and he will always be in my heart. I invite others to share their memories of Mason. Click on the comments and become part of the tribute.

If you don't have a google account, you will be asked to create one. It is fairly easy and free to sign up for an account. Alternatively, you could start your own blog of some sort and then you could log on that way.

Today we made a poster that said we love you, Mason

This morning the children made a poster that said We Love You, Mason and We Miss You. I explained to the children that we were going to give this to Mason's parents and maybe it would help his parents feel better. We decorated the poster with flowers and a butterfly chasing a soccer ball and then all the children signed it.

Mason's classmates share memories...

Today in class we read the story Gentle Willow by Joyce C. Mills. In the story Gentle Willow gets sick although all her friends want her to get better and in the end, she dies. Her friends are told that Gentle Willow had been giving them gifts all the time they knew her. The gifts were the memories that they still have of her after she is gone. I asked the children what memories they had of Mason. Joshua remembers going to the D.C. United game for Mason's birthday. "I was playing with him and eating all the candy with Mason!" Ashley remembers playing with Mason at the park and running with him. Sofia lived near Mason in Equador and knew him before he got sick. After he got cancer, Mason came to the United States to get new medicine. She remembers playing with Mason in Equador before he got sick. Hudson played soccer on Mason's soccer team and he went to play soccer at Mason's house too. Hudson remembers the soccer ball that Mason got with all the soccer rules written on it. Josh said he played by Mason on the soccer team.