National Leukemia Awareness Week: Facing Problems Head on to Overcome Them

This is National Leukemia Awareness Week. I am wearing my orange "Pray For Kyle" bracelet, my orange ribbon, and an orange shirt this week to raise awareness and in memory of my dear nephew Kyle Dean Smith who succumbed to Acute Myeloid Monocytic Leukemia on August 1, 2010. The rest of the family and many of the community in Elkhorn City, KY. are showing support for this week as well. Especially on Facebook, which has promoted the use of orange icons on profiles for the week. Marica Casey, Kyle's grandmother, wrote this moving true story this morning:

" When Kyle was around 3 or 3 and a half he had developed a fright for spiders. His biological father had this great fear and passed it on to his son. Kyle and Hannah were visiting. I took them to the mall in Williamson and we shopped. We wen t into the Dollar Tree. I gave them each money and the girls and I helped them shop. Kyle found a package of small rubber spiders on clear rubber webs that had suction cups on the back. He had to have them.
When we got back home we opened everything we had gotten and were ready to play. Kyle wanted a spider and web suctioned to his forehead. Okay, we did that. He looked in the mirror and liked what he saw and then put one on each of our foreheads and the patio doors leading to the deck. Hannah didn't want anything to do with this, she had her own buys on her mind. (ha, pun) Kyle told her in his baby voice, " Sister, you have to so you won't be scared anymore."

We wore those spider webs, off and on, for the most part of that visit.The girls and I knew then he was our "Spiderman", our super hero.

.........Even at that age he knew you had to face your problems head on ( another pun) in order to overcome them.
He did this same thing when faced with the enormous problem of beating death. And he won! He was fearless, he was strong, he looked at the goal and not so much the battle, he inspired us, giving us courage and hope, he wore it on his forehead and we ALL did as well.............

...........This community came together because a child needed us, inspired the good in us, gave us what we needed to show love for each other. Why should we let go of this just because Kyle isn't here, in the flesh with us. Let us not forget how our hearts were full and we smiled at each other with kindness and compassion. Keep Kyle alive and with us, PLEASE. For each other and our children, let's not forget what that time taught us.........."