When Payton was first diagnosed with DIPG I had this vision in my mind of him growing up, into an adult, and being a cancer survivor…I suppose that was “hope” giving me that vision. In the early diagnosis days, I wouldn’t allow myself to think anything other than him surviving cancer.
Little did I know, he would not survive cancer, but we would. I read a quote recently, it said “Surviving cancer is not the end of a gruesome story, it’s the beginning of a beautiful one”. That quote applies to the cancer patient who survives it, but what about the loved ones who survive their child or family member having cancer and passing away? We are survivors too; only the story does end horribly and starting a beautiful one seems completely impossible without our precious son, the now missing piece to our beautiful puzzle of love.
We survived cancer, and we’re not proud of it, or happy about it.
Photo: Our family of 6, the way it should be. We will never have family photos taken again. This was taken 4 or 5 months before our sweet boy was carried away on the wings of an angel. 
Payton Strong 