Mikey's Story

Michael (Mikey) Gary Carter was born on March 5, 2001. He was a great baby, toddler and child. He was like all other children, he played baseball, football, basketball, and loved gaming. Mikey had always complained of his left leg hurting through the years. I would take him to the doctor and they would say "oh it's a sports injury, it will heal." Never did I imagine it was something far worse. I always trusted in the doctors and went on our way. As, doctors are only human and do the best with what symptoms they are given, never thinking how bad it could actually be. But one day, everything changed. Mikey came down the hall of his middle school limping terribly. He told me "mom, my leg really hurts." I wasted no time, made a doctors appointment and took him immediately. By the next day, he couldn't even put weight on his leg. He was referred to an orthopedic surgeon which did an MRI ON April 8, 2014. That night the phone rang, the doctor said "be at my office at 8:00 in the morning when we open." I thought nothing but maybe a break in the growth plate, a broken bone, a torn ACL. Not what I was fixing to learn. The next morning, we were there at 8:00am taken back to a room and Mikey was put in another room. The doctor came in and sat down. "I have some bad news", "Mikey has cancer". I was shocked. I sat there looking around, numb, then it hit me. My baby has cancer. I cried, I panicked, I got sick. No, no, no this doesn't happen to my family. This happens to others not my son. We left the doctor's office that day. I was sad, mad, a broken women. On the way to my mom's house Mikey kept asking what's wrong, what's wrong. I didn't want to tell my son he had cancer, Osteosarcoma Bone Cancer, but I had to. When Mikey found out he cried, he was scared, terrified. Then the true test starts... chemo, dr. visits galore, hospital stays and many sleepless nights. Mikey was a real trooper through this but his faith in God was changed. "there can't be a God, he wouldn't do this." "Where is our God through all this". So many questions and no answers. With each appointment, Mikey only saw death, no hope, no happiness, no anything. We ended up at Vanderbilt with the doctor's telling Mikey point blank, you are gonna die. It was selfish, it was terrifying, and it was mean. They gave him no reason to hope, no reason for happiness, still only death. After many treatments and many hospital stays and many surgeries, we were sent home in September for Mikey to die. We spent a 2 hour ambulance ride from Vanderbilt to Oliver Springs, Tn. The amount of support from our little town was known, abundant, and so appreciated. After this people started coming by to visit, maybe to say their goodbyes, but Mikey was getting better, not worse, not dying. There was only one reason for this, God. That's when Mikey changed. He believed again, he said God is healing me, God has got this. Mikey couldn't walk still, good, or get out of bed really. He wanted to be saved and baptized. We are of Baptist faith and could not take him to be submerged for baptism, so the Methodist church came to the house and Mikey was saved and baptized. It was a glorious day and Mikey never wavered from God from then on. Mikey continued chemo and trying to fight this fight. One day he told me, "mom, this is gonna be hard to hear, but I don't want to do chemo anymore." I was devastated, but I had to let Mikey make his own decision on this. He was tired, he was done being a hospital kid. Mikey ended up taking the chemo pill, which he agreed to. One night, Mikey couldn't breath, we ended up at Children's in Knoxville, but Mikey never made it home. After a year and a month with cancer, Mikey took his last breath and went home to be with our Lord and Saviour, May 30, 2015. I will see my son again! And what a glorious day that will be. In honor of you my precious angel baby, Michael (Mikey) Gary Carter, I will love you forever and always, and miss you till my last breath. 

Mikey always said" mom you know how neat it's gonna be to meet my maker". He was excited to be in the presence of the Lord!

Take these rocks and read his story, replace them so someone else may be inspired not only by Mikey, but by God. 

Proverbs 3:5–6

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

John 11:25–26

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never truly die."

1 Corinthians 13:12

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

Mikey was such a brave young man, he chose to be cremated, chose a celebration of life and chose how he wanted his celebration of life to be held. He chose his songs, and told people to come as you would normally, don't dress up, you didn't dress up to come see me. What an honor it is to be his mother. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my precious son's story of life, death, and life with his maker.