A father who was grieving captured a heartbreaking moment on camera as he saw his 6-year-old son comfort his 4-year-old daughter as she lost her battle with cancer.
In the heartbreaking image captured by Matt Sooter, Jackson, his eldest son, can be seen stroking his sister Adalynn’s hair as she clings to her final hours of life.
Matt published a Facebook post recounting the traumatic experience of having to see his children say farewell to one another as an emotional honor to his youngest. Matt penned: “A little boy should not have to say goodbye to his partner in crime, his play mate, his best friend, his little sister. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. But this is the broken world we live in.”
Matt reported that Adalynn’s condition had gotten worse in the days prior to the photo being taken. Her symptoms had rapidly increased during the previous day and a half, according to her father, who called the daughter Addy with fondness. Matt shared: “she woke up as her spunky playful self. While we still see short instances of our girl she can no longer eat or swallow without difficulty and she’s sleeping most of the time now and we’ve admitted her into inpatient care. Most likely she doesn’t have much time left.”
Because she didn’t have much time left, Matt urged everyone who love her to say their final goodbyes. Jackson did not leave and neither his sister nor his parents forced him to do so; he simply remained by her side. Addy had taken her last breath a few hours after Matt had shared the picture.
Addy’s battle with her illness has been going on for the past 18 months, since when her physicians discovered that she had a tumor growing on the stem of her brain. She was found to have diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DPIG), and Jackson had been by her side during the entire process. Matt shared the story of their heartfelt farewell and commented that although it was a touching moment, it was not unexpected. According to the woman’s father, Jackson has always been very kind to his daughter and takes excellent care of her. Jackson is still a joyful little kid, according to Matt, although he seems to be missing his sister a lot.
The father, whose heart was crushed, expressed that even though he will miss his daughter tremendously, he are at peace with the knowledge that they did everything in their power to try to assist her and that she is no longer in misery.
