The Healing Journey

December 22, 2024

Patty’s beloved son John died of brain cancer at 36 years old on February 20, 2022.

Throughout her life, she has known loss. Her mother died of cancer when Patty was pregnant with her son. Her husband, who was a stockbroker on Wall Street, was traumatized for years as a result of 9/11 and the horrors he witnessed. It affected his mental and physical health. He developed cancer and died in 2010. She has heard that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle, but in her case, she says he didn’t give her a plate of tragedies, he gave her “a platter.”

Ever since he was a little boy, Patty had called John her “Bunny Boy,” and sometimes it annoyed him when he got older and began his law career. However, she was quick to set him straight and often said, “I don’t care how much of a big shot you are, you’re always going to be my Bunny Boy.”

Then, her Bunny Boy died, and Christmas, the hardest time of year, was approaching. One afternoon, she went to visit her daughter-in-law and play with her grandson. As she was driving home in her new Chevy Trax SUV, she was playing the Beatles station, because John loved the Beatles. “Hey Jude” came on, and that was one of John’s favorite songs. As she reached to touch the button on the radio, the screen went black and suddenly the name “Bunny Boy” appeared.

“I almost drove off the Sunrise Highway,” she recalled. “I thought I was hallucinating. It stayed on there for two or three minutes before “Hey Jude” came back on.”

She realized it was an early Christmas gift, one of the best imaginable. And she interpreted it as a sign that John was all right and watching over her.

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