For Liam, one year later

One year ago today, the world lost a little boy who was brave and kind beyond his six years.  When I met Liam a few years ago I could tell that he was the kind of person who could make your glass feel half-full, even when it seemed to be three-quarters-empty.  I could tell this because three-quarters is exactly how empty my glass seemed the day I met Liam.  We were both in the overnight pediatric wing of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  You could say we were both in pretty shitty situations.  But still, Liam had this light about him.  And I don’t mean that in a woo-woo way, but just simply that it was obvious that this kid made the place—which you could say was pretty drab—brighter.  People became noticeably happier when they were around Liam.  I always thought Liam made a much better hospital visitor—IV tubes and all trailing behind him—than any of the clowns, musicians, and comedians who passed through the hallways of Memorial Sloan-Kettering.  But I wish he had never had to walk down one of those hallways.

It has been a year since Liam passed and I still have many questions and doubts and a lot of heartache.  In the past year, sad things have happened to other people who I care about—the kind of sad things that can make you wonder how the sun could possibly still rise over certain homes.  I do not know what I believe about religion or faith or fairness anymore.  I definitely do not know why bad things happen to good people.  What I do know is that sometimes good things come out of bad things and that good people do good things even in bad (shitty) situations.  I do not know why some people die young while others live to be old.  But I do know that as long as I am here, I want to live like Liam did, or as his mom Gretchen says, “love like Liam.”  And here is how you can, too:

*Love and protect your siblings and best friends.

*Make sure the people who take care of you (and care about you) know how you feel about them.

*Do not worry about all the reasons why you cannot do something.  Think of something you can do and then do that.  Because you can.

*Make someone else feel better who is having a shitty day, on a day when you, too are having a shitty day.

*Do things that are important and special now, today. Be less concerned with later.

*Go about your day thinking that you could make a new friend at any time in any place. Then, make one.

*Support great causes, great people, eat cookies—and do all three at once, which is what Liam did almost everyday.  (Do not worry, this is the easiest one on the list.  Just go to: http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org/)

*And of course, if you love something as much as Liam loved scootering, do not let the rules or anything else get in your way.  Just be open to scooter-walking when you absolutely have to.

For more on Liam, see these posts:
http://kikikoro.blogspot.com/2011/02/tips-i-learned-from-liam-plus-few-from.html
http://kikikoro.blogspot.com/2011/01/for-liam.html

And really, go to the Cookies for Kids' Cancer website. Much better than this blog.  And you have cookies, t-shirts, jewelry to buy before Valentine's Day.  Email me for my apartment and office addresses...Love Like Liam's Lemon cookies start shipping on February 6 (http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=LLL).