When Andy Caudill was diagnosed with cancer, son McGuire, now 3, was too young to realize what was going on.
Not McKenna, now 7.
The experience was hard on her, her mother says.
“I was scared,” McKenna says. “I helped take care of him. I put his bandages on him. I helped cut the tape and put the tape on. I would put the soap in the bathtub and when he took a shower, I got his towel for him.”
Andy recently ran across a list of chores McKenna would do for her daddy while he was sick.
Along with getting soap, McKenna planned to make her daddy’s bed, give him money for food, call people to come and visit him and most of all, give him love.
From time to time, McGuire asked his dad how his boo-boos were doing.
Andy took pictures of the children with him at the hospital.
There were times he told his wife, “I can’t do this.”
“You look at those pictures,” she told him. “Yes you can.”
McKenna still misses her dad when he goes to work ó she’s gotten used to having him home.
But children are resilient and she’s back to her routine of school and dance.
The children ride bikes one sunny afternoon, and afterward are anxious to show off their rooms.
“We cleaned up our rooms but not our closets,” McKenna says.
McGuire is a Thomas fan and so his room is decorated accordingly.
Next door, McKenna’s room is Passion Pink ó which actually looks more like Pepto-Bismol Pink, he dad admits ó and full of dance ribbons, stuffed animals and other fun girl stuff.
All of this gives Andy hope for the future.
Back downstairs, McKenna sits with her daddy on the sofa for awhile and they talk about his illness.
“It’s like you’re riding down a road, then it gets bumpy, and then it gets smooth again,” McKenna says.
“We’re on the smooth road now,” Andy says.