Mother Serenading Terminally Ill Son on Piano Will Break Your Heart
“Music just communicates things that words can’t. It just heals my heart to be able to play and sing,” Abby Tanner said.
The video of her singing to her 1-year-old son, Lincoln, while they were waiting for a doctor’s appointment has gone viral.
Lincoln has been diagnosed with a rare, terminal form of epilepsy called malignant migrating partial seizure of infancy. Abby said at one point he was having over 200 seizures a day.
She has started a Facebook page, Lincoln’s Road, to keep people updated on his progress. “Lincoln’s road of disability is challenging in every way, but we know Who leads us,” she wrote.
On the Facebook page, she chooses to be transparent as she and her family find hope in the midst of suffering.
She shared about one day where she was so frustrated that she even hoped Lincoln had cancer rather than MMPSI. “He’d have a chance at beating it then,” she wrote.
But she chooses to not steep in her confusion and anger. She said, “You have to reach for the joys that are today, and you have to embrace those and not get sucked into this cycle of hurt and despair.”
On her blog she shared why she is being so transparent, “God has set us on a path where we feel we can preserve our son’s integrity and privacy while using our discernment to invite you along with us as we traverse the tough ruts of suffering in the road and also the views of hope from the peaks. I pray God will speak to your heart directly as we navigate the dichotomy of joyous living in suffering together.”
One day as Abby and her family were waiting for an appointment at Duke Cancer Institute, she was alone with Lincoln when she noticed a piano in one of the rooms.
She sat down and began singing, “Never Enough” from the “Greatest Showman” soundtrack.
She told Inside Edition that she sang that particular song because of the joy it expresses.
“You know, it was just a moment between he and I, and it wasn’t until we looked up and we saw a bunch of people clapping afterwards, really enjoying it, that we knew anybody else was even there,” she said.
The video, which was posted to Duke Cancer Institute’s Facebook, has since gone viral. Abby is now hoping that all of the attention to the video will help jump-start more research and awareness into her son’s rare disease.
Wow. What a beautiful message. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Tanner family!
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