Tues. Jan. 29th — One of the saddest days on the calendar!

Today’s update is from Ali:

January 29, 2007. 6 years ago today was a typical day, until I got a call from my mom saying I needed to get a ride home from school because my parents were at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children| Nemours with Andrew for what they thought would be an appendectomy. My uncle picked me up from school and brought me home where my grandmother was waiting for me. Something didn’t seem right. Later that night, my dad came home, sat me and my grandmother down and told us Andrew had Leukemia. I ran upstairs, packed a suitcase, and within minutes my mom called from the hospital saying they were rushing Andrew to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and that we had to get there immediately. We got there as doctors and nurses swarmed his room…so many doctors and nurses that we weren’t even allowed in the room. Next thing I know, I see them doing chest compressions to keep my little brother alive. The doctor told us then that Andrew wouldn’t live through the night. Each time a doctor or nurse would open the door to leave or enter Andrew’s room, we would scream into the room how much we loved him, how much we still needed him and begged him not to give up. And he didn’t give up. He made it through that night and our childhood cancer journey began…

This is the day my brother started to slowly be taken from me.