Art as a legacy

Indeed, the three toys behind the art once were just innocent playthings, offering simple comfort, hinting at each child’s personality. After the kids’ diagnoses, the items each gained enormous emotional heft: Matthew, for example, brought his toy horse, “Bucky,” to every MRI, blood draw, and radiation therapy.

After their deaths, the objects took on irreplaceable value – cherished symbols their parents could clutch and remember, the mothers all said.

“Bucky was his most important thing, his treasured item, the physical thing that most connects us to him,” said Nikki Austin, who lives in Pasco, Washington. Her son Matthew died in November 2013

“It’s a little piece of him,” she said. “He’s gone. This is what remains. This is what I have.”

Before they inspired art, each child’s toy held its own sweet story.

Jennifer’s ring

The piece was a garage sale bargain, tucked in a 25-cent bag of costume jewelry. Libby Kranz knew that her daughter, Jennifer, loved all things glittery and bought it for her.

When Jennifer spied the faux silver ring inside that pouch with its tints of blue, it looked to her like a grown-up ring. So she instantly gifted it back to mom. Libby kissed the ring and kissed Jennifer. It fit perfectly. Lined with five bumps, Libby decided each chip represented her five loves – her husband, three kids and the baby on the way.

A day later, Jennifer asked for the ring back. That became their playful pattern. Each time, Jennifer would keep the ring for 10 minutes then return it. Their little game lasted the rest of Jennifer’s short lifetime.

In October 2013, doctors diagnosed Jennifer with an incurable tumor on her brain stem. She was 6. She died in February 2014.

At her burial, Libby gave Jennifer their cherished keepsake. “It’s her ring,” Libby said then. But she believed, one day, Jennifer would return it – like always.

Weeks later, a package arrived at Libby’s house in California. A stranger who’d read Libby’s blog entry about the ring had seen a Facebook post: Someone back east was selling a ring. To the blog reader, it looked exactly as Libby had described. The woman bought the piece then mailed it.

Libby opened the package as her two older kids and husband watched. The ring was a spot-on match. Libby wept.

"Jennifer loved that I wore it every day,” Libby said. “But she was also a ‘spitfiery’ little girl so she also loved that it was hers and she could take it back whenever she wanted. She loved everything on her terms. This was no exception.

“It was very Jennifer to give this ring back when she wanted,” said her mother. “Even in death, she gave it back on her terms.”

Rohan’s spaceship

Born with a quick mind and busy hands, Rohan yearned to build. And he loved Legos. The colorful, connecting blocks inspired him to conceive and construct cars, trucks and flying vessels.

When he turned 7, his parents, Cammy and Ashish Singh, gave him a model kit for an X-Wing Starfighter from Star Wars. That same week, Rohan began feeling the symptoms of an aggressive, malignant brain tumor.

Between severe headaches and bouts of vomiting, he assembled the model. He finished just before entering the hospital to undergo neurosurgery.