This is what being a mother is all about.
Courageous cancer patient, 32, who lived for her baby with Down syndrome passes away on Mother’s Day
Jorie Rogers of Ladue, Mo., was thought to be infertile when she became pregnant with son Tristan. The family celebrated the boy’s first birthday in March.
BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2013, 7:46 PM
On Wednesday, Jorie said on Facebook that she had been given one to two weeks to live.
Jorie Rogers just wanted to live long enough to celebrate her son’s first birthday.
She got her wish, but the mother who wasn’t supposed to be a mother, the mother who wanted only the best for her miracle baby with Down syndrome, lost her battle with cancer on Sunday, her second and final Mother’s Day.
After the birthday party, Jorie said she wanted Tristan to know how hard she fought to be with him.
"It's very special because not only are we celebrating my son's first year and everything that he had to go through to get here, but it's the one birthday that I'll get with him," Rogers said in March when she held a carnival-themed party for her son, Tristan. "And we get to celebrate the one year that we had together."
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Jorie Rogers was believed to be infertile after her radiation treatments but, after marrying high school sweetheart George Rogers, discovered she was pregnant.
She had stopped treatment in March after doctors told the Ladue, Mo., mother that her paraganglioma, a rare form of cancer that caused dozens of tumors in her body, had advanced to a point of no return.
KSDK
The charity 3 Little Birds 4 Life made the birthday party come true. The Illinois-based nonprofit’s founder has vowed to continue helping the family “in any way possible.”
“They’ve given me one to two weeks left,” Rogers wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday. “I guess if anyone wants to drop by for a visit sometime now would be the time to do it. I also realize that death is just too (scary) for some people to face in person and if that’s you, that’s ok too.”
Rogers’ story is both heartbreaking and heartwarming — a life lived to the fullest but one also cut short.
KSDK
Jorie Rogers took to Facebook on Wednesday to ask people to make their final visits with her.
The 32-year-old’s radiation treatments were supposed to leave her infertile. But after marrying her high school sweetheart, George Rogers, Jorie found out that she was pregnant. After their baby was born, the couple learned that Tristan had Down syndrome.
KSDK
Dad George holds Tristan as Jorie and the family enjoy the birthday party.
Plagued by medical bills, the Rogers called upon Illinois-based nonprofit 3 Little Birds 4 Life, an organization that grants people with cancer a wish. Jorie’s was for little Tristan to have a first birthday to remember, a carnival with popcorn machines, snow cones, clowns, jugglers and a bounce house.
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Tristan with dad George Rogers.
Her wish — and Tristan’s — came true, and during a stretch of dreary late March weather, the skies cleared for the big day, leaving the 70 guests basking without jackets in the Midwestern sunshine.
"I want him to be able to look back on videos and pictures from today and hear the stories about today and for him to know how much his mom loved him,” Jorie then told KSDK-TV. “And for him to know how hard his mom fought to be here for him."
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Reflecting on the birthday party’s significance, Jorie offered, “I want (Tristan) to be able to look back on videos and pictures from today ... and for him to know how much his mom loved him.”
Less than two months later, cancer claimed Jorie’s life. On Mother’s Day, no less.
Ashley Swip, 3 Little Birds 4 Life’s president and founder, said Jorie had been suffering the last few weeks. Jorie’s husband, George, called Swip on Sunday morning and broke her the news.
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Burdened with medical bills, Jorie Rogers called upon a charity that grants cancer patients one wish in order to provide her son a carnival-themed first birthday in March. It would be the only birthday she’d be able to spend with Tristan.
“Jorie was really special, and today’s been really bittersweet,” Swip said. “I’m so glad we were able to meet her and her family. And we will continue to help the family in any way possible.”
Jorie was a member of a cancer support group on Facebook. The group’s leader, Tisa Perra, remembered Jorie on Sunday.
“Today, the world lost a valiant and courageous Pheo Trooper,” Perra wrote. “Jorie Wilson Rogers, was a loving mom, wife, sister, daughter and friend. She fiercely loved her son Tristan like a lioness. Her fighting spirit was an inspiration to many. She lived her life fully despite disease and suffering. May she rest in peace. May she be free from suffering.”
Be gentle.
Oh my goodness this is heart wrenching. God Bless them all.
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