My Brother’s Wish
My Brother’s Wish is a project, created by Lucas Stern, in memory of his brother, Toby, who died at 12 weeks old from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Lucas turned two years old, 10 days after Toby died, and while many thought that “he was too young to understand or remember,” Luke’s role as an older brother to Toby never ended. He did not forget that Toby was here for a short time and he grieves, just as his parents do, over the death of his sibling.
Our family welcomed our third son, Zeke, in November of 2018, and Lucas talks to Zeke daily about their brother in Heaven and what Toby would be doing if he were here.
Early in 2020, Zeke experienced some medical issues that landed our family in the Emergency Room with him. As you can imagine, the ER is a scary place for anyone, let alone a family whose infant son has died and whose older sibling lived through the traumatic experience.
When we were placed in an ER room a member of the medical staff came in and brought Lucas a box. Upon opening it, he found a number of toys and items to keep him busy while doctors and nurses came in and out of the room, talking with us and checking on Zeke. It was something that placed a little calm in a scary and hectic situation.
The next day, Lucas was still playing with the box and we mentioned to him how nice it was for someone to do something like that.
“It would be nice to put my toys in these boxes to give to other brothers and sisters when their families have to be in the hospital,” said Lucas.
From there, ‘My Brother’s Wish‘ was born.
