 On November 1st 1996 God gave us a beautiful gift. A wonderful little boy. Jack was, from the beginning a very special little boy. I know every parent thinks their child is the "most special" and they are, but Jack did things way before he was "supposed to." He threw his bottle at us at 9 months old, starting walking at 10 months was potty trained at 1½ years old and was speaking in full sentences before he was two. He was a joy to behold, a good baby and a wonderful little boy. On November 17th 1999 our whole world came crashing down around us when we were told Jack had cancer, but true to his style, two hours after his first operation he was up running around eating pizza. Throughout his 20 months of treatment he was incredible, very rarely feeling "sick" enough to be bed bound, so our time at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) or the Ronald McDonald House was not restful. We were on the go all the time. Jack was diagnosed with "undifferentiated sarcoma" with mets to the lungs. He had a tumor on his wrist. The odds were never really in Jack's favor but we never gave up. Erik and I said that as long as Jack had good quality of life and there was another treatment we could try......we would do it. He was able to attend day care part time, and we took a wonderful trip to Disney thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation. A trip we will never forget. Jack went into remission in August 2000. Although we were able to take a breath, the niggling doubt was still there. Friends asked us why we were not jumping up and down for joy. Well the truth was, we were scared and on December 19th 2000 that fear came true, a spot on Jack's lung showed up on a scan............Jack had relapsed.
July 14th 2001 we ended up back in the hospital; Jack had a very rapid heartbeat and we came to find out that Jack had an infusion on his lung. To simplify it, it was as if one of the tumors had liquefied and his lungs were now filling with fluid. We met with his Dr. Dr. Raffini who is an amazing lady and she had the hard task of telling us there was nothing else they could do for Jack. She urged me to call my family in Ireland and have them come over to see Jack, while he still felt good! She told us that they thought Jack had maybe a week left with us.
We got him a wheelchair and portable oxygen so that he could at least get outside for a little while. On September 11th as NYC was struck with such unbelievable tragedy, we too were having a tragedy of our own. Jack did not want to come downstairs and was slipping in and out of sleep. For 8 days he continued like this, when he was awake he would tell Erik and I how much he loved us, and wanted me to sing "our songs" to him, and then on September 19th 2001 at 2.13am Jack took a breath and did not take any more. He left us quietly and peacefully, as we had hoped he would. About 10 minutes after he died an incredible look of peace came over his face and Erik and I knew that he had now surely seen the face of God and was safely home.
 It has been almost ten months now since our little laddie left us, and only now am I able to share these photos with you all. Squirrel Tales has been an incredible source of comfort and strength for me, and I don't know what I would have done without it!
but he will NEVER leave our hearts. The Wind is his whisper, The Sun is his smile And the stars that shine at night are the twinkle in his eyes. Jack always was and always will be our hero..........truly a MIGHTY BOY
Angel Jack........11/1/96-9/19/01
God Bless Erik and Rosaleen Perry |
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We were told that it was terminal and although the doctors would do everything they could we would now be looking at prolonging Jack's life for as long as we could. We did not tell family and friends at this point, Erik and I had a feeling this would be Jack's last Christmas with us and we wanted it to be a happy one. And boy what a Christmas we had. For the next seven months we tried a lot of different experimental chemos, each one working for a little while, and then they would stop and the tumors would come back. Jack had now endured 20 months of chemo, 13 weeks of radiation, 3 surgeries, and yet he still ran around like nothing was wrong. 
On July 19th 2001 we left the hospital and my family arrived. They truly thought Erik and I had rocks in our head, Jack was running around and playing like nothing was wrong. I now believe that Jack was saving his strength for my family. The day after they left, Jack started to get weaker, but yet soldiered on for another few weeks, needing oxygen every now and then, but he decided himself that he would not walk anymore as it "took his breath away"!