Little boy visits grave of his twin brother to tell him all about his first day of kindergarten
Siblings share a special connection, more so when they are twins. The bond between them is usually one of mutual comfort, joy, reassurance, solace and love. But this was taken away from one young boy in a cruel twist of fate.
Walker Myrick and Willis Myrick were meant to be twin brothers who explored the world together. However, due to unfortunate circumstances, one of them did not make it into this world.
It turned out the twins’ mother, Brooke Myrick of Florence, Alabama, had suffered twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a potentially f.a.t.a.l — for both fetuses — and rare condition.
In TTTS, the twin fetuses share one placenta and network of blood vessels, thus receiving an unequal amount of essential nutrients, resulting in one child — or both — not getting the adequate nutrients they need to survive. The condition affects roughly 15% of identical twins that share a placenta or 4,500 TTTS cases per year in the U.S.
“I had never heard of it, and I actually didn’t even know we should get tested,” the mother of the twins, Brooke said. “Every time we went in, everything was fine, so I was in this mindset that I’m going to have two healthy babies.”
“I was 24 weeks when we found out but they said that it had been at least a week, so we really don’t know when Willis passed away,” she added.
Even though the two boys did not get to know one another in this life, they still share a special connection according to mother Brooke Davis.
“It’s just one of those things. I truly believe he’ll always have a connection with his brother,” she says.
The young boy would often dream of his twin brother and would be taken to Willis’ grave as well by his parents where he would have full-on conversations with his dead brother. Davis would sometimes take pictures of these encounters that warmed her heart.
In 2012 when Walker was 5 years old and had just begun Kindergarten, he paid a visit to his brother’s grave. He leaned against the gravestone and told his brother all about his first day of school.
“Willis truly lives through Walker – and I think he watches over him,” Davis says.
She says when they arrived, Walker rushed out of the car before she could even get her younger daughter, who was still a baby at the time, ready. By the time she had reached him, she saw him sitting with his back leaning against his brother’s gravestone. Moved by the image, she took a picture. She explained:
“I parked and he ran up ahead as I was unstrapping his baby brother from his car seat. All I had with me was my iPhone. I wasn’t anticipating taking a photograph. But when I walked up and saw him like that, it was just one of those moments where you think: ‘This is really special.’”
Walker told his mom that he had wanted a quiet moment alone with his brother, and when he was finished, Brooke said “he was all smiles.”
“He just wanted to sit there and, I think, feel that connection,” she continued. “He told us that he just wanted to tell his brother about school.”
While Brooke said she “struggled for several years” after the loss of Willis, she and her husband’s decision to be open with Walker and their three other children about Willis helped.
“Even as an infant I would always talk to him about Willis and he would smile,” Brooke said, adding, “At 1 or 2 years old, he would run up to the grave. We would say, ‘That’s your brother. That’s where your twin brother is.’ Because I always wanted him to know where he was going. I always wanted him to know that was an open area of his life and not to grow up ever thinking, ‘I can’t talk about my brother.’”
But Davis does not want to forget Willis ever. Every year on the twins’ birthday, the family organizes “The Walker and Willis Birthday Walk.” It is accompanied by an auction and a t-shirt sale to raise funds.
The goal of the event is to raise awareness about TTTS and also to donate $2,500 annually to the TTTS Foundation. Davis also has advise for families going through what she did with TTTS.
“I would tell them to know that their children never leave them.”
And with how Walker still remembers and honors his twin brother who never even made it into the world, this rings very true.
Sources: tttsfoundation.org, today.com, people.com
