MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (CNN) — It was Mikey Choroszy’s final wish to shop at the LEGO store at Mall of America — and to top it off — Mikey’s brother Jake flew in from South Dakota to be with him one last time.
“On Monday we did a lot of shopping and he was doing really good. Mikey took a decline very quickly,” Mikey’s mother, Tammy Wildish, said.
Mikey had brain cancer and his family knew his time was running out — but they had no idea their 11-year-old boy wouldn’t make it home with them.
Tammy was there as Mikey took his last breath in a Minneapolis hospital.
“The biggest thing was watching him die. That was the worst. Going from walking to not walking at all to the point where we had to pick him up and move him,” she said.
Tammy says Mikey’s battle with childhood cancer started about 15 months ago when he was diagnosed with a tumor on his brain stem.
Remission last year led to relapse just months later.
“He was a fighter, he never gave up. He told me that he was fighting for his brother Robby. He was doing this for his brother. He would not give up,” Tammy said.
Tragically — exactly one year ago today — Mikey unexpectedly lost his 19-year-old brother Robby to health issues.
The unfathomable pain of losing two sons in just one year has only been made worse by the financial burden on this family.
“Now, Mikey is still in Minneapolis, Minnesota and we’re trying to get him back as soon as we can. It’s going to be a cost,” Tammy said.
Thousands of dollars this mother can’t afford. A family friend set up this GoFundMe page to help bring him home and to say their final goodbyes.
“He never ever had a scare in life, he never worried about anything,” she said.
Mikey’s family had hoped to raise $20,000 through their GoFundMe page to help pay for his final expenses. But generous donors exceeded that goal by thousands.
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