Logan Cooke
2024 Scholarship Winner
East Carolina University – Construction Management

I knew something was wrong when my grandma picked me up that day from kindergarten. I can remember the tears in her eyes when I got in the car. My dad had left a year before and I said to myself, “What could be worse than that?”. I quickly found out. My mom sat my little brother and me down and said, “Boys, the doctors told Mommy that I have cancer”. She explained to us in kid language what cancer was and that it meant she was very sick. It was a day I will never forget, a December day and all I could focus on was the Christmas tree in our living room.

My mom had Stage IV breast cancer, it had already spread. Of course, at six, I did not understand what that meant. I just knew it was terrible. My mom would sit with my brother and me at night and just hold us until we would fall asleep. She did not know that I just pretended sometimes and heard her crying when she thought we were sleeping, she would just hold us. I decided during those nights we would all lay there together that it was going to be my job to be the man of the house.

I may have grown up that December day but I also learned that life is really difficult without the support of others. My mom, brother, and I were lucky that we had family that supported us, loved us, and helped us through those early days. They continue to love and support us today. I appreciate them teaching me what it looked like to step up and help the ones you love. We were also lucky to find hope in an organization that gave us a vacation. Little Pink Houses of Hope gave my mom, brother, and me a free vacation to Emerald Isle when we were younger. For the very first time, my brother and I were able to be around other kids who had moms like ours. They understood us. Little Pink Houses of Hope has become much more than a trip we got, they have become family and I am so glad that I know they are always there for my brother and I. I did not really understand cancer back then but now that I am older I understand so much more about metastatic breast cancer. I understand why we had to sell our house and move in with family for a while. I also understand why I had to go to a different school in a town where I knew no one.

I am now one of the lucky ones who still have their mom. She is more than twelve years into her diagnosis that statistically should have taken her eleven years ago. The last twelve years have not been easy, though Mom tries to make life easier for my brother and me. A great deal of responsibility still falls on me. She has had so many surgeries and still gets chemotherapy every three weeks, over two hundred of them so far. Mom has become my hero and shown me true strength and faith. I have also learned the importance of helping your community. She has taught me the importance of helping others and volunteering my time to help make life a little easier for people facing the same things. My brother, mom, and I are involved in several nonprofit organizations that do just that. I focused my senior project on one of them.

From that day in December as a kindergartner to today, I have understood the importance of what mom calls “moments”. Moments are important times in my and my brother’s lives that she never thought she would see. From watching me graduate from kindergarten until now being a senior in high school, there have been a lot of moments. She got emotional watching me have my senior pictures, filling out the senior paperwork at school, college tours, and watching me play my very last basketball game. I am who I am today because of the things I have gone through during my life. No matter how hard the times get we still keep going. I am thankful for all that my mom has taught me and am looking forward to making her proud in college.