My family is very disconnected.  I know most of my family, but I never interact with them very often.   I see my dad’s side way more than my mom’s.  My dad’s side consists of my grandma and grandpa and my one uncle and aunt.  My aunt has a daughter, and my uncle has a daughter that I never see.  My mom’s side consists of a lot more people than my dad’s side.  The only people I ever see are my uncle Chris and my grandma.  The rest of the family I don’t ever see because they live somewhere else, or I don’t care to see them because of drug problems.  My uncle Chris did have a son, and that’s what this story is about. 

It was July 14, 2012.  A child named Wyatt was born.  This was my uncle’s first and only child.  They first wanted to name him after something to do with rock, due to his love of rock collecting, instead my uncle named him Wyatt because he thought it was the perfect name. As soon as he was born, my sister and I walked to the hospital where he was born to visit him.  Wyatt was born a healthy baby with no problems.  He was big for a baby, which is better than being small, and he had some beautiful green eyes.  We visited him until he was out of the hospital.

Chris had a rough home life as a child and served in the military for a while.  This made him into an emotionally unstable person.  This caused him to develop a problem with alcohol.  He would drink when he was depressed and that was often.  Alcohol and being a dad does not mix, so he had to change that, and he did.  As far as I know, he lost his habits as soon as Wyatt was born along with his levels of responsibility rising.  He got the money to get a house for his newfound family and he quit the bad habit of smoking.  Everything he did after that was for Wyatt, and only Wyatt.

Wyatt’s mom on the other hand was not as good of a parent as Chris.  I don’t really know what kinds of problems she had, but something was wrong.  I knew she smoked, which is not very good for the baby, and I could only assume she drank while she was pregnant and unlike Chris, she didn’t drop these habits.

Sadly, a while after Wyatt was born, Chris and Wyatt’s mother split up.  So, they had to determine a plan of when each person was going to take care of Wyatt.  They did agree on a plan, but it usually turned out that Chris had him for most of the time.  The mother usually made excuses why she couldn’t take care of him, or she was just too lazy.  In my opinion, Wyatt being with Chris the most was better than him being with his mother due to his mother was not very responsible or a good influence.

Wyatt was a very nice kid.  He didn’t get upset very much and he was nice to people and animals.  He seemed to have quite a liking for animals.  He was never scared of any animals he saw, and he was always wanted to get a hold onto whatever it was.  One of my fondest memories of this was when he caught a toad and he was running around to everyone showing them his little friend he caught.  We even got a great picture of it.  This is the picture we use when we remember him.  He wasn’t shy of everyone he met.  He would always try to get their attention and act in a goofy way.  At my grandma’s birthday, he ran around with a balloon caught on his leg and just kept laughing while he ran.  He was a great kid… I wish he was still around.

Toddlers are very fragile, especially when they are having their teeth grow in.  Like most kids, Wyatt got sick.  He got the flu, which isn’t a huge deal to us, but to a toddler whose immune system is weaker than usual, it can be life threatening.  We thought it was just the flu, so we thought he would be just fine, but it did something no one expected to happen.  The disease got bad enough that Wyatt developed meningitis, a disease that is caused when infected liquid inflames your brain stem and pushes against the spine.  Wyatt then had a seizure that put him into a coma.  He was immediately brought St. Jude’s Children Hospital to be treated.  We went there and prayed that some miracle would happen that would have him be okay, but it was too late.  The only reason he was alive now was because of life support, and even if some miracle did happen, he would have brain damage and he would never be the same.  On December 24, 2015, Wyatt Lee Tourville was taken off life support.

This broke Chris, his whole world was gone. Chris went back to his old ways and he got even more emotionally unstable after that.  The rest of the family knew this and tried helping Chris with all the problems he had.  We made a Go Fund Me for the funeral that turned out paying for most of the expenses.  I had never cried for any funeral I have gone to, except Wyatt’s.

Wyatt brought the family together.  For the few birthdays Wyatt had, it was a great time for everyone to get together and enjoy seeing each other for once.  I feel sad that we missed all the memories of him growing up.  I wish he was still around, but at least he was a joy in our lives for the time he was with us.