Luca Caiden

Bringer of Light | Great fighter

Luca was everything we strive to be. Everyone that met him both virtually and in-person was immediately captivated by his strength, his resilience and his smile. There were numerous times when Luca would come out of surgery and leave us in awe as he would begin to play with daddy and cuddle mommy. He truly exemplified his name. Luca, bringer of light and Caiden, great fighter. He was so much more than his diagnosis. He was our baby. He was love.

“A Small, Round, Blue Cell”

After a chaotic labor and an emergent C-Section, Luca made his way into this world. Hearing his cry gave us much relief, but that relief shortly turned into worry when we heard "There is a lump in between his neck and shoulder”.

Luca spent his first few days of life away from mommy and daddy in the NICU. At five days old, he underwent surgery to remove the unknown lump. Post operation, the surgeon came in and said, “Surgery went well, we removed the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue”, he continued nonchalantly, “it looks to be small, round, blue cell”. I immediately Googled exactly what I heard, ‘small, round, blue cell’. In shock of what I read, I uttered “small, round, blue cell - that’s malignant right?” He replied yes. In that moment, our world seemed to stop spinning.

Luca underwent chemotherapy, multiple surgeries, and went into what we believe to be remission twice. Unfortunately, he passed July 2, 2020, after his final relapse in May.