Blogs: Families, Foundations & Researchers

Silas Martin was a Brony (Brotherhood of My Little Pony Lovers). Look it up – it’s even on Wikipedia! Mostly teens and college guys, a Brony probably has an amazingly gentle, kind spirit – even if he looks tough on the outside.
Early in Silas’s last year of life, he was offered a “Mini Wish” to go to an anime convention in southern Illinois. He was psyched! He asked Mom to take him and two of his older buddies. There were vendors, breakout sessions for Q & A, and fake martial arts fighting (with foam sabers)! People dressed as their favorite characters abounded.

From the time Joey could walk he was constantly on the move!! Running, jumping, sliding, dancing, you name it. He loved to play sports and would often be outside with his dad with a ball and a bat, or a soccer ball, or a football, you get the picture. Well when he was around 3 years old he saw WWE for the first time…..and just couldn’t get enough!!

My daughter Mia Nichelle Noflin. Mia passed on November 16, 2020 From DIPG. A rare pediatric brain tumor. This photo was taken in Feburary 2020, just a few weeks before her diagnosis.

This was the first year Gianna wasn’t here to celebrate 2/12 her “cancer free day.” Every year we did something big to celebrate . One year she was an honorary ball kid for the Knicks, another year they congratulated her on their scoreboard. By far our favorite day as when we were in invited to spend the day on the set of NBC Special Victims Unit and meet the entire cast and crew!

Tanner was always unique. He was a Renaissance man who had not yet lived long enough to know all that he did.

Books and stories were one of the things that connected Mikey and I the most. This love of story began with our mom reading to us each night as we lay beside each other in the bed we shared. It grew and evolved, as we did.

My family and I are blessed with SO many great memories of Andrew, our son and brother, who died from Leukemia in July 2007 at the age of 14. It’s hard to pick just one.

I wanted to share a little bit of our story…… Liv Like a Unicorn was started by my amazing daughter Olivia or “Liv” as we called her. Right around her 8th birthday, she was diagnosed with an aggressive tumor in her spinal cord – DIPG. Liv bravely fought her cancer for 9 months, all while worrying about other kids fighting the same disease. The doctors told us to “go home and make memories”, but that was “not good enough” for my daughter. The summer she was sick she raised over $10,000 for pediatric cancer and the Liv like a Unicorn foundation was born.

Kortney was a fearless daredevil. She went on the largest waterslide, at the time in New Jersey, at Great Adventure’s water park. There was no way I was going with her so her dad, Rich, went with her. Her sister, Kasey and her friends stood at the bottom fearful and watched 7-year-old Kortney climb the gigantic ladder. We know which parent she took after. After she came down with the biggest smile on her face, she immediately wanted to do it again. My husband said once was enough for him.

Through love, laughter, and loss, the one constant and our favorite has been music.