STOW, OH — Keith Burkett, a 12-year-old Ohio boy with a rare type of cancer, got one last wish before he died Monday. It wasn’t quite what the boy, known as “Kourageous Keith” for his brave fight against the disease, had imagined. What he wanted was to walk his mother, Taylore Woodard, down the aisle to marry his stepfather, Adam. But that wasn’t to be. The cancer he had battled for half of his life robbed him of that, too.
The ceremony was to have taken place Sunday, Nov. 11. But as Keith’s condition deteriorated, the ceremony was moved ahead a few days. And while Keith didn’t get to walk at his mother’s side, he was wheeled in the family’s living room in Stow just ahead of her.
Keith’s death was announced on GoFundMe, where a campaign raised $4,370 for the family to rent a hall for the wedding, cater a sit-down dinner and hire a DJ for dancing afterward. Now, the money will be used for Keith’s funeral.
“Our precious hero, Kourageous Keith, has gone home with The Lord,” the announcement said. “Please pray for this family who are utterly devastated. Cancer took another child away from their family. He fought and he beat cancer twice but this third time, it was unstoppable.”
Keith had been in hospice care for several weeks when he told his mother of his final wish.
“He said, ‘Well Momma, I would like to walk you down the aisle before I die,’ and then I was like, you know what, we’re making it happen,” Taylore told television station WQAD.
On Nov. 7, Taylore wrote on the Kourageous Keith Facebook page that her son was slipping away.
“We think he is holding out to go down the aisle with me,” she wrote. “He keeps talking about it when he’s in and out of lucidness. So tomorrow we will do a small ceremony at the house to honor our hero’s wishes.”
Keith has battled soft tissue sarcoma, a form of cancer that starts with tumors in the soft tissues, such as muscles, fat, joints, nerves and blood vessels. It comprises about 1 percent of all cancer diagnoses, and treatment typically involves surgery to remove the cancerous tumors. More aggressive forms require radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
That’s the kind Keith had, and this year, it spread throughout his body.
Doctors gave him two months to live this fall, and the town of Stow turned out to give him an early Christmas parade on Oct. 21. Decked out with holly and bells, 50 Jeeps, a dozen motorcycles, a military convoy truck and, of course, a school bus followed a fire truck from the high school parking lot in Stow to Keith’s house, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.
“Christmas is my favorite holiday because of all the happiness and joy in the world,” Keith said at the time.
He had fought cancer half of his life, but wasn’t ready to surrender.
He clung to hope of a miracle “so that maybe when I grow up I can have a wife and treat her right,” he told the newspaper. “I just feel like people should be treated the way you want to be treated.”
Stow treated Keith well. But there was no life-saving miracle.
“I would have never thought I would sit and beg God to take my child, but I would rather him be with God than suffer the way he is,” his mother told WQAD. “It’s not fair.”
Below is a video of the wedding ceremony.
Photo via GoFundMe, a Patch promotional partner.