Grieving Son Gets Birthday Gift from Mother 10 Days After She Passes Away
Losing a parent is such a hard thing, no matter what age you are. For Kevin Doonan, the loss of his sweet mom just 10 days before his 30th birthday in 2018 was heartbreaking.
Doonan says his family was “stunned” when they learned his mom, Carol, had stomach cancer. “My mum was out celebrating her sister’s 50th birthday,” Doonan told Marie Curie.
“They went out and had some food and drinks,” he continued. “She looked amazing. They had a really good time.”
Sadly it was just three days later when they found out about the diagnosis. “The speed at which it all happened was like a rollercoaster,” he recalled. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
Many times we see a cancer diagnosis and the victim has months and sometimes even years to live. But Carol’s time was much shorter.
“From diagnosis to the day my mum died, 29 days, that was all the time we where granted,” Doonan wrote on his blog, Irish Cu Chulainn.
Doonan says in the final days before Carol’s passing, the Marie Curie nurses went above and beyond, providing the best care possible.
“The nurses were the loveliest ladies I’ve ever met,” he said. “They would let us get some sleep and said they’d wake us if they needed us.”
Not even a month had passed since the diagnosis when Kevin and his family found themselves planning Carol’s funeral.
“The cancer crept up on us from nowhere,” he explained. “And once she was diagnosed she nosedived into the symptoms and the disease took over her physical body.”
Even so, Kevin’s mom wasn’t willing to leave this world without making sure her son had a big surprise for his upcoming 30th birthday.
“With the help of my sister and my partner, she’d [organized] for me to receive a giant box of presents,” Kevin shared with Marie Curie. “Including a bottle of the perfume she’d always given me for Christmas. It was so thoughtful.”
“Losing Mum has made me [realize] that life is short,” Doonan added in the end. “She taught us to be resilient and now, more than ever, I feel that.”
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