Caylee Marie Cepero

Caylee was 4 yrs old when she passed and was completely full of life. There was never a bad moment, never a bad memory, except the one where she died. She was ill 5 days and on the 4th day after being misdiagnosed her pediatrician immediately diagnosed it on sight as Leukemia, that was Monday, March 7, 2005. We were devastated. The next evening, she was not clotting and I was told she probably was not going to make it through the night. I told them to keep trying. I could not fail her. Our priest, Father Rich from St. Catherine's Episcopal Church was there and he said, "The last bit of love you can give her is to let her go." I knew he was right when the bags of blood they were putting in to stabalize her started coming back out. She was bleeding to death, so we had to make a decision to let her go before she did. The Hematologists said that it would be far worse if that happened. I could not bear to do that to her. So, I told them to disconnect her and give her to me. I held her for a long time. I touched her little feet and hands and rubbed her tummy that had hurt so much and kissed her over and over again. I told her that I was so sorry that this happened to her and that I loved being her mommy and that I was lucky to have had that opportunity. She died at 8:13 pm on Tuesday, March 8, 2005. In November, her class made cards for Thanksgiving. Caylee's card said she wanted to thank Papa for taking her fishing, mommy for buying her things and Jesus for giving her TV. The last thing she said to us just a couple of hours before she passed was, "Papa, I want to watch TV. I want to think that Jesus was standing there telling her whenever she was ready to go home just say it. I think it was her way of saying to us she was ready. She closed her eyes and did not open them or ever speak again. I truly believe she was already gone.