Colbys Story

     Colby was a healthy baby and kid growing up.  He was an amazing baseball and an exceptional basketball player.  Everyone knew that Colby would one day make it to the NBA with his skills.  Colby was considered one of the popular kids and he got along with everyone.  We lived in a semi-small town so everyone knew everyone.  Colby was living a great life until it changed dramatically when he was in 12 years old in 7th grade.  This was when he was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness called Hereditary Angioedema (HAE), www.haea.org.  He went from playing sports and hanging with friends, to him being in the PICU at CHKD on life support for at least 2 weeks out of each month.  His life had been turned upside down.  This illness was so serious he was granted a “Make A Wish.”   When he wasn't at the hospital, he lived in constant pain throughout his middle school, high school days and then even once he was out of school.  He wouldn’t allow any of his friends to see him when he was at the hospital, or recuperating, there were only a handful of family members that Colby allowed to see him while in the hospital or at home when he was sick.  However, when he wasn’t sick Colby was the life of the group.  He was the one who would be telling jokes, being super happy, sticking up for the underdog, helping others when they needed help, and always trying to smooth over his teachers. 

     This illness, the mental and physical effects it had on Colby he started to get depressed.  He started seeing a counselor and they put him on medicine for depression, but unfortunately these medicines interacted with some of his other medicines, so he stopped taking them.  When he would attend school, he would feel as if he was missing so much socially because he didn’t know all the news anymore so he felt out of place.  He would talk to me about some of his problems as we had a close relationship, however, now looking back I believe he protected me from his real feelings as I don’t think he wanted anyone to know what he really felt.  As he got older, he tried to deal with his depression in other ways like alcohol and marijuana to ease his pain, and he tried to hide it.  He realized later in life that marijuana & alcohol were only making things worse and realizing this he quit both of these.  As Colby was a young adult, he was still all about helping others.  He would give you the shirt off his back, if you were having a bad day he would stay with you until he made you smile or laugh.  Colby is known for his laugh, smile, and little smirk he always had on his face.  The truth that I realized after he passed away is that he made others happy and cared so much about others happiness to hide his own pain from everyone around him.  He was silently fighting his own battle. 

     July 2, 2017 would be the worst day of my life.  Colby ended his own battle and took his own life.  He spent a majority of his life building others up and unfortunately nobody saw the signs that Colby was masking his pain, fighting a battle on his own.  As a mom I will forever hold guilt for not recognizing this and getting him help.  However, I made Colby a promise at his service that one day I would create a nonprofit to continue his legacy so that in honor of him people in need would get their needs met.  This is why I am creating this Foundation, it will be Colby's way of living each day like he is still here through this nonprofit helping others while they fight battles that they may not speak about.  As a foundation we are here to get individuals to do their part and us to do our part.  Together we can make a HUGE difference in our communities.  

In closing, I hope you choose to make a lifetime commitment with your voices, personal stories, and the stories of the people you love that been affected by any sort of trauma or service of need.   As the mother of my son, I choose to honor Colby’s memory and legacy by speaking out and continuing the conversations about the awareness of this nonprofit organization to work to help others make a lifetime commitment to make a difference.    

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I love you Colby and your Foundation is now up and running!  This is for you bud!