Dawson was born on August 30th, 2001 at 6:03 p.m. He weighed in at 9 pounds 14 ounces and was 22 inches long. He came in to this world surrounded by love and happiness - he had finally arrived!
He was a happy, healthy baby, not much of a sleeper…as his parents, we didn’t do much sleeping in his first year of life. He loved being held and snuggled and we loved doing it.
Dawson was a typical boy…active and energetic. When Dawson was 2 years old, he was diagnosed with asthma. Other than getting bouts of the croup, he was always pretty healthy and smiling. We felt so blessed that God had sent him to be our son.
Just before Dawson’s third birthday, he became a big brother to Alex. Dawson and Alex grew to be best buds. We could always count on the two of them to make our days busy but we also knew we could count on Dawson to take good care of his little brother.
We lived in Regina and in 2003, moved to a subdivision called Windsor Park. Dawson attended Arcola East Preschool from Fall of 2005 to Spring of 2006. Following preschool, Dawson attended St. Gabriel Elementary School from Kindergarten to the end of grade 2. In the summer of 2009, we moved just 10 minutes outside of Regina to White City and Dawson started his grade 3 year at White City Elementary School.
One of Dawson’s proudest moments, and ours as parents, came at the end of grade 2 when Dawson’s classmates awarded him the Christian Leadership Award. St. Gabriel Elementary school has now renamed this award, The Dawson Ellert Christian Leadership Award.
Dawson was involved in many activities: skating, curling, karate, baseball, basketball, swimming, art classes and guitar. He loved life, but we started to notice he was having trouble focusing; he wasn’t growing in height and was gaining an incredible amount of weight. Little did we know, our boy was battling against a slow growing brain tumour that he may have had prior to birth.
On February 7th, 2010, Dawson was diagnosed with Craniopharyngioma, a type of brain tumour surrounding the pituitary gland. Our world stopped and came crashing down around us. Without hesitation, either of us would have traded places with him.
Dawson was immediately hospitalized in Regina while tests were done and plans made for surgery. A few days later, we made the decision to take Dawson to Saskatoon for surgery. Upon arrival there, Dawson was put through a battery of tests. Our hearts were breaking for him but we were so proud of our brave little man. On Thursday, February 11th, we spent our last full day with our boy; we called it our “Adventure Day”. We toured the hospital, frolicked in the snow, did his classmates valentine’s, ripped around in a wheelchair, shopped in the hospital gift shop, ate together and watched movies. We savoured every moment of the day. It was a beautiful day and our last with our precious Dawson.
Early in the morning on Friday, February 12th, Dawson went in to surgery to remove the tumour. It was the longest, most horrible day of our lives as we knew our boy’s life was in the hands of the medical team. Nine hours later the doctors emerged giving us the news that everything had went successfully and they were able to fully remove the tumour. The news brought us to our knees, alleluia!
Bad news was to come …in the early morning hours of February 14th, the doctors informed us that Dawson had suffered a devastating and massive stroke that ultimately ended his joyful life. We were brought to our knees again, and our lives have been forever changed from that moment.
Dawson was kind, generous with his belongings and his time. He was hilarious, we would sometimes marvel at his humour. He loved to laugh and smile but more than that, he loved to make others laugh and smile. He deeply cared for others and was sad if he knew someone else was hurting. He was gentle, with people and animals. He was polite, polite at times when we would have understood if he wasn’t. He was friendly; he loved to brighten someone else’s day.
Winter was his favourite season and every time he went snowmobiling or tobogganing he would say it was “the best day of his life”! He followed the rules, our little eight year old boy would even have to remind us to put our seat belts on, don’t talk on our cell phones while driving and do not litter. He had patience, endless patience.
He was creative. The last Lego he built was a Star Wars Star Destroyer; it contained 3,500 pieces and is rated for ages 14 years and up. Over a three day span, he worked on it diligently by himself. Now keep in mind, the tumour was giving Dawson double vision and we noticed he was building with one eye closed so he could see better. He created amazing clay and play-dough sculptures; there was a time when he said he wanted to be an artist. But the last thing he said he wanted to be when he grew up was a Lego Designer.
He went through many phases: The Wiggles when he was two, Highway 35 Hot wheels, Star Wars, Yu-Gi-Oh, Lego, Webkinz, Transformers, Bakugan, Spongebob, Mr. men, Lego Powerminers. And when he went through these phases, he was passionate about it, taking great care of his belongings and grateful for what he received. He was handsome…we told him every morning that we couldn’t believe he was even more handsome today than yesterday. Dawson loved his family and his kitties, Frankie and Garfield.
We held Dawson in our arms in the hours before he passed. We crawled in to his hospital bed and slept with him. We held hands. We could still see some traces of clay under his finger nails from the creations he had made. We kissed his precious body. We ran our fingers through his golden hair. We took in his sweet smell. And when it was time, he passed on from this world to a better place, just as he entered it, in our arms.
We know in our hearts that Dawsie would not want us to be sad. We must all take his qualities and try to emulate them…in honour of our son. We need not be angry, this boy came to all of us to make us better people, to make this world a better place. We are so incredibly proud of the young little man our boy became. We are better people for loving him and for him loving us. For that we are blessed beyond belief.
...as you danced in the light with joy, love lifted you. As you brushed against this world so gently, YOU lifted us. ~T.C. Ring
Fly, Dawsie, Fly!
