Author, speaker, and above all, father, Chris Cochran, shares the equally tragic and uplifting story of his son Christian, what Christian believed in, and why to make To-Love lists instead of To-Do lists.Hear Chris's full interview in Episode 54 of Let's Talk Legacy.
Listen, Christian was the most amazing, remarkable. There's no earthly terms and earthly words I can come up with to describe Christian to the full extent, right? He had deep love for his fellow man and woman and all people. Christian was an amazing individual just from the day he was born to the moment he took his last breath. And I was with him at both events.
Since he was a child, he would show compassion for others. It was an unusual trait. Even before 13 months, he was speaking in full sentences, which was pretty unusual. I knew this kid was destined for something special. He had this incredible ability to see the goodness in everything. Even when he was little, we called him Mr. Comforter all the time because he could comfort us, even as adults.
He can make us feel good. He did that for other children. I remember the first day of school getting on the bus, you know, kids clamor. They want to get on the bus and we get the best seat. They want to be in whatever with their best friend. Christian was always making sure he was the last person on the bus because he wanted everyone to be happy to have what they wanted on that bus.
And as a young adult, he was incredibly talented. The prom king in school, a big school here in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. He was the lead actor in every drama. He was in every play and every musical. And he had been in a movie, in a Batman movie. He was kind of on track to do the things he wanted. And he... felt a pain in his back, Christmas in 2020.
And this pain just came up and just thought it was normal. He was a healthy, young, good-looking boy. Eventually, the pain became so bad that we had a blood test, told to go see a CT scan. This was during COVID. So I was asked to go meet at the doctor's office. Six people came in white coats. Their faces were covered with masks.
I could only see their eyes, but I knew at that moment, I kept reassuring Christian as we arrived, it's going to be okay. Things are going to be fine. We'll be back to our regular life. And they immediately came in and said, Christian, you have a grapefruit-sized tumor on your liver. At this time, we didn't know exactly what it was at that moment, what kind of cancer, bio-duck cancer.
It's a less than 1% chance of living. You're lucky if you live six months. So Christian was given a terminal diagnosis. I remember as parents, we were heartbroken. And we said, we're so sorry, Christian, that you have to deal with this. He said, it's okay. I would never want this on anyone else. I want this to be my burden. He said, I am so grateful to you guys. He never complained one time.
The moment he got his diagnosis to the day he took his last breath, he never complained one time. All he cared about was everyone else around him and how to lead a good life for the remainder of his life.
That's why the title of the book is What's Good About Today is because when we would cry and we would say, you know, how horrible this was for us and him and the family, he would say, no, what's good about today? And it was his daily reminder about all the good, all the beauty you can find in the day, even in the worst of circumstances, when things are not going your way.
You can find nuggets of goodness and beauty in every single day. I believe that if every person could simply wake up in the day, the end of the day, and say, what's good about today? And really take the time for yourself and think that out and realize that the sun's on my face. I'm able to take a long walk, but can't take a long walk. I interacted with my son, my daughter, my wife or a friend.
There are so many things on our day that are good. They far outweigh the bad. And so I think that's just a mind shift. You know, the interesting thing is Christian had he didn't have to do list. He had to love list and he kept those. That's that's how he managed his life and who you love. I think that's all the way of the foundation is set up too is they're not so much to do's.
They're all about to loves. And how do we put more love out there to places and help?