Victory for Colin, 895 E Franklin Rd (2026)

09/09/2023

Never forgotten ❤️ forever in our hearts
Colin Isaiah
Days pass, months pass,
Somehow even years
But love remains
And a lifetime of memories

13/01/2022

Hi friends! I’m here to post an update on our family and share a wild story. We had a nice Christmas out of town at Sam & Erin’s house with Garrett & Christian and Dan, Trevor & I. It’s incomprehensible that this was our second Christmas without our beloved Colin, not that we ever really do anything without him. We carry him from the first breath of each morning until we close out each night. The sorrow is still our regular companion, but we all are finding the strength and the hope to carry on.
Trevor is in 8th grade and doing very well at school and enjoying teenage activities with his friends and, of course, time with family. He’s getting tall and his voice has deepened so that he almost sounds like Colin. He is playing basketball and joined the snowboard team at school. We are blessed at the strength and tenacity Trevor demonstrates daily and his joyful attitude toward life. Colin would be so proud of his little brother and the resiliency he exhibits daily.
Now for the wild story about this page. My personal page was hacked in March 2021. Then this page was stolen. I tried for months to restore my rightful ownership but was unsuccessful. It was devastating to me to lose access Colin’s page and felt almost like losing him again and my community of support.
In November, I shockingly regained access to my personal page, albeit limited. Victory for Colin was still inaccessible to me as I had been removed from being the admin. His page was managed in Vietnam! Last week, the person acting as admin started responding to my messages. He said he was sorry and that he had gained access from a hacker. He promised to restore it to me. A week passed with sporadic communication. He told me not to worry. I had to trust someone who gained access to the page illegally to do the right thing. I poured my heart out to him through messenger telling him about my beautiful Colin. Friends, tonight he did it -he gave me my page back!! It’s been 10 months since I was hacked & it seemed almost impossible to ever get it back! I am beyond grateful tonight, one more step in our healing journey.

27/02/2021

Today is 9 months without Colin and tryouts for what should be his senior year of baseball. Colin loved playing baseball so much and hoped and worked toward playing in college. This should be an exciting and memorable time in his life, and in ours as we watched him absolutely crush it going after his dreams. So much life, so much hope, so much destiny lost to all of us.

For those friends preparing for spring baseball, give your all out there, breath deeply, hit the ball hard, and take every opportunity to be grateful for the game. Colin appreciated every practice, every teammate, every coach, every inning, and every at bat he had. Play hard. Play for Colin!!

05/02/2021

Today is World Cancer Day, but when cancer has invaded your life like it has ours, everyday is cancer day. Like many people, cancer has impacted my life repeatedly, affecting family members, friends, colleagues, students, and most viciously, my son Colin.

Pediatric cancer is especially incomprehensible, striking children without reason or lifestyle causation and absolutely gutting families. I have watched children fight with such beautiful strength and heart-wrenching agony. They fight for a future most people take for granted. Many fight for a future they’ll never have. I watched Colin hold in his pain and fight that monster with his final breath, hiding the truth to protect my heart. He is forever my hero!

Today, let’s remember what the world has lost - the empty bedrooms, the empty chairs, the grieving parents, the lonely siblings, the teammates, the friends, the stolen futures, and too much to ever really enumerate. I pray there comes a day when parents will not have to hear those shattering words, “Your child has cancer.”

Thank you for reading this and honoring and remembering the life of my strong, beautiful son Colin.

28/01/2021

Today is 8 months without our Colin. We woke to a heaviness and sorrow that is still incomprehensible. Trevor is struggling without his big brother while trying to navigate middle school and all that entails. He turned 13 earlier this month. Colin never got to see his little brother as a teenager.

We are all trying to carry on and live well without our hero, but some days are still just so hard. Colin, we love you forever, the time and distance only magnify that love. Watch out for your little bro ❤️

01/12/2020

Since it’s almost Giving Tuesday, I thought I’d share some thoughts, needs, and gratitude on behalf of the families in the pediatric cancer community. Funds and fundraising are crucial for families facing pediatric cancer. We are instantly immersed into a realm where little in life makes sense, all while facing fears of an uncertain future and so desperately trying to make it all disappear. Sometimes even now, 6 months after Colin finished his 13 month battle with leukemia, I still cannot believe it really happened. We were thrust into navigating a complicated medical world, trying to maintain employment, and still being present for our other children and families. All any of us want is a cure and hope for our children’s future.

The lives of pediatric cancer families are impacted in many ways. There are the obvious needs of medical care, babysitting, and meals. But many families need funding for gas, supplies, equipment, travel, bills, and lost wages or employment.

I would like to offer some suggestions and links for different fundraising platforms, local and national. Some are concerned more with the specific needs of the families, some focus on emotional support, some on financial needs, and some offer reprieve from the battle like camp and wish organizations. Still others exist primarily to fund research. All of these are extremely important to pediatric cancer families.

I would also like to highlight my friend Maria Ines and her work in honor of her son Jorge. She tirelessly supports other families through their darkest days while grieving her own loss. This year, like last year, she would like to bless pediatric cancer patients at St Luke’s Children’s Hospital. She is collecting toys, gifts, & gift cards in honor of some of our local warriors who were taken too soon, including my son Colin.

I would like to thank all of our family, friends, and community for your support while Colin fought so hard. He is at peace now and healed in heaven and yet there are many others who still need our help. Please consider the needs within the pediatric cancer community as you decide where to share your gifts this Giving Tuesday.

JorgeStrong Foundation

Make-A-Wish Idaho

Shinecology

Camp Rainbow Gold, Inc.

Boise's Got Faith

Team NEGU: Never Ever Give Up

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

28/11/2020

Today is exactly 6 months since we said goodbye to Colin on earth. It’s been the hardest stretch of time in my entire life. Finding the will to keep fighting to live well in Colin’s honor and for my three other sons is a daily struggle. But we are grateful for family and the memories we share. We’re grateful for 17 beautiful years with the best, wittiest, and strongest boy we’ve ever known. Colin continues to inspire us to live well and cherish what we have.

We are blessed to be able to get away for thanksgiving week in the mountains in Northern California. Dan, Trevor, Garrett, Christian and I have had a quiet, meaningful time away together, cooking, hiking, playing games, and sharing memories of our beloved Colin. We have spent thanksgivings here in years past with Colin, so the memories surround us here too. He is with us always, whether at home, school, work, or traveling. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

26/10/2020

Our long wait for Colin’s headstone is over. His grave is now marked forever in Meridian Cemetery in Meridian, Idaho. The wait was not just due to the monument company and production time, but rather our own desires that it match perfectly to the stone right behind his, the one that marks the grave of his oldest brother.

Colin’s oldest brother Josh passed away when Colin was only 3. They didn’t have much time together on earth, but Josh was always an important part of Colin’s life. His older brothers Garrett and Sam were faithful in sharing stories and memories of Josh with Colin & Trevor, passing on his legacy of love. The deep, abiding love my sons share is forged not only in brotherhood, but in faith and laughter and hope and loss. We have been here in the valley of the shadow of death before. We already know the agony of losing a son and brother. This could be why my sons cherish the times they have together and love and care for each other so selflessly.

Colin visited this cemetery many, many times as he grew up, never expecting how soon he would be laid to rest in the row in front of his beloved brother. Meridian Cemetery was incredibly accommodating to us to get a spot so close. We tried to buy the spot adjacent to Josh, but it was already purchased by another family. They graciously added a space in the row right in front of Josh’s marker so the brothers could be close. Now in heaven, they’re getting the time together that life didn’t provide, and we have this place to visit the two brothers. There is a strong, thin thread reaching from heaven to earth that ties all of our hearts together and we yearn for the day when we’ll see each other again.

19/10/2020

I laid on my son’s grave and cried today. Sobbed really. And so did his little brother Trevor.

We haven’t been there since the day he was laid to rest, the day before his memorial. We have a long history at the cemetery where Colin is buried and it’s very difficult to go there. But we received word that they’re planning to mount his headstone this week and I wanted to see his temporary marker in person. It was smaller than I thought it would be and so much more final. Trevor and I were undone. There’s so much life and meaning and loss in that small marker.

It seems as if the change in seasons and falling leaves have amplified our sorrow. We’ve been making progress in healing, but the seasons are a reminder of time thrusting us forward without our beloved Colin. I think about the hope we had at this time last year heading into the holidays. That hope has changed to an eternal meaning and we cling to the promise of being together again one day.

While Colin was in treatment, after each day in the clinic, he and I would get in the car and I’d tell him how proud I was of him and I’d say, “One day closer.” Colin always responded, “Yep!” Now, each day I wake up and I think, “One day closer.” Different meaning, but hope remains.

08/09/2020

Today is the first day of Colin’s senior year at Rocky Mountain High School, at least it should be. I like to think that he just graduated early. September is also childhood cancer awareness and leukemia awareness month. My feed is filled with back-to-school photos and inspiring but heartbreaking stories of warriors battling cancer. Sometimes these warriors are upgraded, not because they didn’t fight hard enough, but because their battle was complete. Just like most things in his life, Colin was early, he was fast, and he finished first. Fly high, my love.

Victory for Colin

09/09/2023

13/01/2022

27/02/2021

05/02/2021

28/01/2021

01/12/2020

28/11/2020

26/10/2020

19/10/2020

08/09/2020

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