Joseph - Petersburg

When we learned that our 13-year-old son Joseph was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) a rare form of leukemia in children, a blanket of darkness and despair covered our family of being alone to fight this disease that dare to take our child away from us. As word spread of our news, people began reaching out to us offering help in getting us to where we needed to be and receive the best help we can get for our child. Help offered in the form of travel, finances, lodging, words of support and encouragement and most of all prayers of healing and strength for Joseph and family to get through this. Soon we started to see a ray of light pierce the darkness to shine upon us. Once treatment began we started to hear of good news daily from the doctors of Joseph’s positive treatment results, the light began to brighten around us to see we are not alone in this fight. We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity, care packages mailed to Joseph in Seattle Children’s Hospital, help and donations by the community as well as friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances outside of Petersburg around Alaska and throughout the United States. This outpouring has cast the full light of the sun upon us, a blinding light driving out any darkness and fear, replacing it with hope and love for our Joseph. We cannot thank the community enough for the kindness, support and willingness to help us in a time of need to get us through this. We also thank the school for designing the tee shirt for Joseph, “Joseph Strong” which has caught on to be our family motto.

Thank you to everyone that helped us along this journey whether it be a card of kind words, a hug, finances or putting on a fundraiser. We want to list names but don’t know everyone involved and we don’t want to leave anyone out so, instead we want to say is that we know who you are, and others know who you are that tirelessly and graciously made all this happen. Joseph said that this is not a “Me” effort but a “We” effort as a community coming together. This is why we live in our little paradise in the corner of the world. Thank you Petersburg, thank you for everything. Joseph Strong!