Son Dying Of Cancer Tells Dad He 'Has To Quit.' Dad Promises That Son Can Let Go

Aug 17, 2018 by apost team

A father named Bill Kohler found himself needing to talk to his son, Ayden, about his impending death.

Some conversations are impossible to prepare for. It's every parent's worst nightmare to need to talk to a child about their impending death, but that's what happened to Bill Kohler.

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Bill Kohler's son, Ayden, was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Its name is diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. DPIG is type of cancer that affects a person's brain stem. A patient will rarely live longer than a year after being diagnosed.

In Ayden's case, though, the prognosis was even worse. He had two brain tumors instead of just one. He knew that he was dying. Kohler, however, wasn't sure how to face his son's impending death. The man was a former Army medic who had served one tour of duty during the Iraq war, so he knew how it felt to lose people.

Kohler initially attempted to get Ayden enrolled in a number of clinical trials. But he received rejections upon rejections. He decided to make a life-changing pledge. If it wasn't possible to find a cure for Ayden, Kohler would do everything in his power to make Ayden's days as full of life as possible.

Kohler did everything for his son. He took him to meet WWE wrestling personalities, FaceTimed with Guy Fieri, hunted in the woods, and joined the York Generals professional football team members as part of a fundraiser.

But only seven months after the diagnosis, these simple pleasures were too much for Ayden. He had reached a point in which he couldn't eat, walk, or breathe properly.

That was when he told his father: "Dad, I gotta quit."

Kohler told him that as long as he'd fought with everything he had, and he'd fought as hard as he could, it was okay to quit. Ayden continued to fight for as long as he could. But only seven months and seven days after his initial diagnosis, he passed away.

Ayden did have one final request. He said that if anyone gathered to remember him, he wanted them to be singing and dancing and having a good time. He wanted to be remembered as a happy, caring, and funny person.

Even though Ayden has passed on, he still has a legacy here. Many people are making donations in his name to help fund the ongoing fight against cancer. Do you think Ayden is being remembered how he wanted to be? Let us know your thoughts.