Remembering Arden’s Birthday with Seven Sunflowers

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do." - Helen Keller

Arden’s story is one of “love, hope, faith, happiness, and kindness, even through the worst kind of suffering.” If not for her battle with neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer of the sympathetic nervous system (a nerve network outside the brain), she would turn 7 today.

On October 9, 2007, the world of two-year-old Arden changed. She woke up from her sleep, screaming of pains in her tummy, covered in sweat and paler than she had ever been. Her parents took her to the closest E.R., for what would be the first of many trips to the hospital. Two days and x-rays, ultrasounds, physicals and a CAT scan later, results showed that a tumor was in her abdomen. An MIBG scan confirmed she had neuroblastoma.

For the next 10.5 months, Arden endured six rounds of chemotherapy and two stem cell rescues with a sense of bravery and calm that astounded all. While she was still in the hospital, an infection sent her into respiratory failure while her immune system was very weak, and after being on life support for over 6 weeks, Arden died, with her parents by her side, 2 1/2 months before her 4th birthday.

“In the end, during the most difficult times,” her mom, Amy said, “She would tell me, ‘It’s okay, Mommy.’ Every single day, no matter what challenges she had endured, she said, ‘I love you, Mommy. I love you, Daddy’...She reminded us to look beyond our grief, that we needed to appreciate all of the blessings in our lives, and indeed, to appreciate life itself.”

Today we celebrate you, Arden, for all of the life, love and joy you brought to the earth. Happy Birthday sweet Arden. We’re sending seven sunflowers to you in Heaven for your special day.

Arden is one of five St. Baldrick’s Foundation 2011 Ambassador Kids.