Cooper.

I was planning to post my review of Paper Towns tomorrow morning, it's all written and ready to go and everything. Instead, I am here with some incredibly sad news.


Remember when I posted about Cooper and his fight with cancer? He lost. This morning Cooper passed away. He was three. All day long I've wanted nothing more than to scoop up my own boys and hug them close. It is heartbreakingly sad. Babies shouldn't spend more time in the hospital than on the playground. And they shouldn't die.



I don't usually quote from books but I did mark this one passage from Paper Towns on page 33. It seems appropriate to talk about it here instead of in my review.

"But then the life spans started getting longer, and people started having more and more future, and so they spent more time thinking about it. About the future. And now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future- you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to college so they can get a good job so they can get a nice house so they can afford to send their kids to college."

Isn't that true? I keep thinking, "soon, soon we'll be all settled. Money problems will finally level out, the house will be like I want it, I'll figure out how to work 40 hours and have a life." When is soon? How about NOW? Instead of waiting for life to be right, instead of making the future perfect, why aren't I thinking about now? About being with my boys without worrying about the laundry and the checkbook. I'm going to stop imaging how things will be "when the boys are older." We're going to have fun now. We're going to stop and smell the roses. We're going to enjoy each other without worrying about all the things we "should" be doing. Loving each other and each other's company is going to come first, and the house and the laundry is going to come later. Life is too short to waste. Sometimes impossibly short.




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Why Insurance Companies Suck

Ok, follow along if you can- The Pirate's Cousin's Cousin (or, my brother-in-law's brother's son) (got it?) is a very sick little boy. In the fall of 2007 they discovered that he had a tumor in his brain. He had surgery and got all better. Then he wasn't better and had some super scary sugery last summer. Now his insurance is refusing to pay for treatment that they are calling "experimental." With treatment, he has a 80% chance of survival. I do not even want to think about what his chances are without the treatment.

Cooper and his family are (or were, before this) often at my in-law's house for family events and birthdays. They go to ball games to watch The Pirate's cousin play ball, games that we also go to. These are not strangers to me. Cooper and The Pirate are the same age.

The family is trying to raise the money to pay for the treatment, but the hospitals require a hefty amount down before they will proceed. The treatment itself will be about $400,000. Could you find $400,00 in your pocket if your insurance company denied your kid treatment? I couldn't. In my real life, I am a loan officer. I give people loans for cars that cost 1/20th or 1/10th the cost of his treatment. I do home equity loans for 1/4 the cost of the treatment. But I can't do a loan for medical bills, because that is "risky." This family has to have chili suppers and raffles and collect money for Ronald McDonald house so that their little boy can live. They have a little fund at a local credit union and are begging for money. How's that right?

Our local paper just had an article about Cooper and his whole struggle (and I stole their picture.) I'm not an overly religious person, but if I were, I'd ask that you keep the family in your thoughts and prayers.