The wish that put a smile on Todd's face
Todd celebrated his 16th birthday during his wish trip to swim with whale sharks. Sadly, brain cancer claimed his life two short months later.
But mum Katrina said she will always remember Todd's smile during the trip.
'I just thought he looks at peace'
One of Roy’s most cherished memories of his late son Todd was on his wish trip.
It was a moment when not a word was shared.
Roy, together with Todd’s mum Katrina and his sister Tasmin, were sitting outside their accommodation in the Western Australian coastal town of Exmouth.
The family had travelled to Exmouth to realise Todd’s wish to swim with whale sharks.
“We would just sit there on an afternoon and just stare across the water,” Roy recalled.
“You didn’t have to speak, you know, it was just being there all together.”
In the same way, Roy remembers celebrating Todd’s 16th birthday during the trip. It would be Todd’s last birthday before brain cancer claimed his life two short months later.
For his birthday, Todd — freshly on his L-plates — got behind the wheel of his dad’s 4WD LandCruiser and drove the family up a cliff face.
Sitting atop the cliff, the family of four then enjoyed trays of cheese, salami and dips while watching the sunset.
“There’s a photo that captures that moment perfectly,” Roy said.
“I stood back and I just thought he looks at peace. He sort of had accepted it, and we’d accepted it. It just felt like yep, we’re dealing with it.”
Todd's shark tale
Roy and Katrina have other memories from Todd’s wish that still make them smile.
During the five days in Exmouth, Roy enjoyed a fishing charter with his son. And seeing the joy Todd felt behind the wheel of the 4WD, filled Roy with happiness.
“I just put him in the car and said ‘Right, go for it. Just go where you want to go’ and he did,” Roy said.
Katrina said she loved seeing Todd in the water with the whale sharks.
She remembers him joking he had to show patience because some of the other swimmers in their group were considerably slower.
“Todd kept up with the whale sharks and that was just beautiful,” Katrina said. “That night we talked about it a lot. It was just a beautiful time
“And it gave him something to talk about when he saw Nan and Grandad. It was a good conversational piece."
He was always polite and well-mannered and that's a comment that other parents had told us. He was just a beautiful boy
Katrina, wish mum
Beautiful boy who thought of others
Todd was a young man who always thought of others.
One day, while his dad was chain sawing a neighbour’s tree, Todd appeared and asked, “What can I do, Dad? How can I help?”
Katrina said Todd was known by his peers for being fair to others.
“He was always polite and well-mannered and that's a comment that other parents had told us. He was just a beautiful boy,” Katrina said.
Even when he got sick, Todd’s selflessness remained.
“We would be cooking dinner and Todd would be peeling snow peas for me or chopping up for a salad and stuff because he wanted to feel included,” Katrina said.
“He never wanted to be known as the sick kid.”
Making memories after devastating diagnosis
Katrina and Roy say the November day in 2021 when Todd was diagnosed with cancer was the worst day of their lives.
He was just 15 when doctors revealed he had Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare, highly aggressive, and inoperable childhood brain cancer that develops in the brainstem.
“When we got to the hospital they took us up to the ward, they put Todd in the bed, and then the doctor came and took us into a room,” Katrina said.
“That was probably the worst day of our life as such, because that's when she said what it was. I can't remember it fully, but she said there is no treatment.
“She used the phrase, ‘Go home and make memories’.”
Roy said he felt a range of emotions from “utter devastation to anger”.
But for Roy and Katrina, the hardest part was telling other people the reality of the diagnosis.
“We didn’t tell anyone Todd had only six to nine months to live,” Katrina said.
“We could never come to terms with that. We knew it but to actually verbalise that was quite difficult for me.
“We knew there was no hope, but we had to put on a front to make sure that we were OK and that he was OK.”
Roy said he felt a range of emotions from “utter devastation to anger”.
But for Roy and Katrina, the hardest part was telling other people the reality of the diagnosis.
“We didn’t tell anyone Todd had only six to nine months to live,” Katrina said.
“We could never come to terms with that. We knew it but to actually verbalise that was quite difficult for me.
“We knew there was no hope, but we had to put on a front to make sure that we were OK and that he was OK.”
Remembering Todd's smile from wish trip
Sadly, Todd passed away in his father’s arms one Tuesday at home. It was in June 2022, a couple of months after his wish to swim with whale sharks,
For his funeral, Todd’s family took up a suggestion from the funeral director to wrap his casket in a design of their choice.
They chose photos from Todd’s wish trip to cover the casket.
Instead of asking mourners to lay flowers, Katrina and Roy invited them to donate coins to Make-A-Wish.
Sensing mourners may not have coins, Katrina and Roy supplied a bucket full of $2 coins.
“The beautiful part was to see $5, $20 and $50 notes that people had pulled out of their own pockets,” Katrina said.
“We said at the service the money was to go to Make-A-Wish because they had done this trip for us and it was beautiful and Todd really enjoyed it.”
Katrina said $1016 was raised for Make-A-Wish, and they wanted it to go towards another child’s wish.
“We thought if it can bring a smile to some other child’s face, then that's all that matters because we will always remember Todd had a smile on his face when we were at Exmouth on his wish trip,” she said.
