Seth’s Story
Music: Three Little Birds
Artist: Bob Marley
Shared by: Sam & James for Seth
The song that connects us to our son Seth, is ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley.
Seth was diagnosed with a brain tumour when he was just 4 years old. After surgery, radiotherapy, chemo and a period of remission, he relapsed in 2020 and was now considered to have a terminal diagnosis. Despite being clinically well, the day after his 7th birthday, he suffered a catastrophic stroke and wasn’t expected to live more than another few days.
“I felt he was reassuring us that everything would be ok, despite being about to face this catastrophic loss.”
True to his warrior spirit, he defied this and made a near miraculous recovery. Although he never regained use of his legs, he made it home from the hospice, was able to eat and use his upper body and continued to enjoy life as much as possible, spending time on the beach with his brothers, baking and drawing, which he loved to do. Inevitably though, over the next few months, he deteriorated as the cancer took hold.
About a month before he died, we took him to Charlestown to meet a friend for ice cream. Seth was in his wheelchair, very poorly and barely speaking by this point. I spotted a local busker that I know and decided to go over to chat with him, as he was singing the song we had used as the first dance at our wedding. Mid conversation with him, Seth suddenly sat up straight in his chair and from nowhere, began singing …
“Don’t worry, about a thing,
Cos every little thing’s
Gonna be alright!”
The busker grabbed his guitar and started singing and playing along, and there we all were, busking with our little boy, who was so close to the end. I sang with tears in my eyes, listening to this message from my baby boy. I felt he was reassuring us that everything would be ok, despite being about to face this catastrophic loss.
About a month later, at the beginning of May 2021, Seth died at home in our arms, surrounded by us, his parents, his beloved big brothers and his nanny. On the day of his funeral, rainbows were spotted everywhere and when we attended his cremation, as he arrived, we had of course, chosen Three Little Birds to accompany him to the crematorium.
Now, whenever any of his family or friends hear that song, we immediately think of Seth and his bittersweet message to us. Life will never be the same without him, but we all feel that he’s looking out for us still and when times are difficult, we always look out for three little birds.