One of the most difficult things that we may ever have to face in life is the loss of a parent. It can be difficult when we are advanced in years and have spent a lifetime with them. For young children, however, the defense mechanisms that protect us when we are older just don’t exist. The pain that is associated with losing a father or mother when we are only a teenager is something that many of us could never even imagine. Unfortunately, it happens to many children.
One of the individuals who lost parents when he was young is Will Reeve. He is the son of the actor, Christopher Reeve and he watched his father suffer as a quadriplegic. His father was in a horse riding accident in 1995 and severed both his first and second vertebrae, leaving him confined to a wheelchair. He died in 2004 after being treated for a septic bedsore. Unfortunately, that is only part of the story.
It wasn’t long after the death of his father that he also had to endure the death of his mother, Dana Reeve. Even though she never smoked in her life, she had a malignant lung tumor that eventually took her life.
It was only 17 months after the death of her husband that she also died. Their son, Will, was only 13 years old and now he had lost both of his parents. Perhaps Will can describe it best and he did so in a letter he wrote to himself.
“You’re at the lowest point of your life. You’re in a hospital room in New York City, and you’ve just said your final goodbye to Mom.
“You’re 13. She’s 44. Lung cancer. Never smoked. Gone, just like Dad, who died a year-and-a-half ago, which at the time was the lowest you had been.”
Will suffered greatly but now that he is 26 years old, we can see that he didn’t simply wallow in misery.
“But! Here’s the good news: this is the low point.
“There’s nowhere to go but up, and that’s exactly where you’re headed. You will always remember the good stuff.”
In an interview, he said that his parents were the guiding hand he needed and they shaped him and the person he is today. He said: “But! Here’s the good news: “They were the people who told me to turn off the TV, to eat my broccoli, to go to bed.”
“I understand that not every child experiences going to the grocery store and seeing their dad on the magazine at the checkout aisle. But … it was a totally normal childhood.”
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His parents had done everything they could to ensure that he had a normal childhood. This is true, even after the accident his father experienced. Even though he was in a wheelchair, he still taught his son how to ride a bike.
“I didn’t believe it was gonna work,” Will recalled. “I’m terrified, but I have my dad’s voice behind me going, ‘Steady, steady, left, right, left, right.’
“By the third lap, I’m smiling, looking at my dad, waving, and he’s smiling. That meant so much to him. Later on, I would race him in the wheelchair.”
Will gives a lot of credit to his father and mother, saying they were good examples for him even down to this day. He continued to write in the letter to himself, “I want you to know that we do not have all of this figured out. But you know that in the years ahead, you will face no obstacle greater than the one you are starting to overcome right now, and no matter which way your journey leads, mom and dad will be there with you every step of the way. How lucky are you?”