Evidently the Angry Birds video had been disabled. I don't know what happened other than I think BayKids was probably redoing their YouTube site around the same time I linked to it. It is up and running again.
I've reposted so you can enjoy as we continue to remember him and celebrate his life this weekend.
Here's another goodie, reposted by popular demand!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Remembering William
William's obituary is in today's (Sunday, June 3) Sacramento Bee and posted online at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sacbee/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=157894118
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
The Party Details
We invite all to attend the services next week on Thursday and Saturday to honor William.
Thursday, June 7th---public viewing
5:00-8:00 PM
Miller Funeral Home
507 Scott Street, Folsom, CA 95630
916-985-2295
Friday, June 8th---private family burial
Saturday, June 9th---Celebration of Life service
12:00 PM
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
89 Scholar Way
Folsom, CA 95630
For those who would like to make a donation in William's honor, our family has chosen two organizations we would like to support: Sutter Child Life and a national Neuroblastoma research organization.
The Sutter Memorial Child Life Program was part of William's everyday life in the hospital. They provided support to both William and our family. Their program strives to empower children and families to cope, understand, and heal as they encounter illness and hospitalization. Opportunities are offered to create meaningful experiences through play, education, preparation, and emotional support. These programs and activities include educating children about their illnesses, preparing them for procedures and surgeries, offering normal childhood play experiences (toys, games, arts & crafts, movies), celebrating holidays and special events, etc.
Checks can be written directly to the Child Life Program and they can be "tagged" to do something specific to honor William.
Checks can be given directly to us or mailed to:
Child Life Program
Sutter Memorial Hospital
5151 F Street
Sacramento, CA 95819
The New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) consortium is a group of 15 major pediatric institutions in the US that test new therapies that have promise for improving long-term survival for children with neuroblastoma. William was diagnosed with high-risk Neuroblastoma. It is an aggressive cancer with a low cure rate. Many of the treatments William received at UCSF Children's Hospital and Sutter Memorial Hospital were based upon laboratory and clinical studies conducted by NANT consortium investigators, who continue to develop new treatments. Children's Hospital Los Angeles Foundation Department handles all contributions to the NANT consortium and its member institutions.
To donate by mail, checks can be mailed to:
Brooke Glazer, Director
Foundation Department
Children's Hospital Los Angeles
4650 Sunset Blvd, #29
Los Angeles, CA 90029
323-361-1746
bglazer@chla.usc.edu
**Please make checks payable to Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and the memo line on the check should read: In Memory of William Murdock/NANT. Please also include your name, address, phone and email address, and note that the donation is in memory of William Murdock and designated for NANT.
To donate online, go to:
www.chla.org/donate
**Under "I would like my donation directed to:" please make sure to type NANT into the "Other" box. You can also specify that your donation is in memory of William Murdock.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Returning Home
Our sweet William returned home to the loving, welcoming arms of his Heavenly Father on Sunday morning, May 27, 2012. His battle with cancer is over, but his legacy of faith, optimism, strength, patience, and adventure will live on forever.We love him dearly and are so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and to know our family is eternal. We are thankful for the gift of his life and those who helped to extend it and enrich it.
Our boys are doing very well. William's passing was sweet and peaceful and we were able to have some precious, sacred family time all together. Our children understand and are comforted by knowing God's plan. We know our family will be together forever and that William is not far away. Clark, 8, was very tender with his emotions and commented with tears in his eyes that he feels William is really, really happy and is still very close. He added, "It feels like he is touching me right now."
We are still making arrangements to celebrate his life. I will post more details in the coming days, but for those of you who are planners, like me, it will not be this weekend. We want to have time to be with our children and not feel like their needs have to be postponed again for William. The tentative plan is:
Our boys are doing very well. William's passing was sweet and peaceful and we were able to have some precious, sacred family time all together. Our children understand and are comforted by knowing God's plan. We know our family will be together forever and that William is not far away. Clark, 8, was very tender with his emotions and commented with tears in his eyes that he feels William is really, really happy and is still very close. He added, "It feels like he is touching me right now."
We are still making arrangements to celebrate his life. I will post more details in the coming days, but for those of you who are planners, like me, it will not be this weekend. We want to have time to be with our children and not feel like their needs have to be postponed again for William. The tentative plan is:
- Thursday, June 7--public viewing
- Friday, June 8--private family day
- Saturday, June 9--Celebration of Life services
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Soaking up each moment
Guess who? I wanted to give you an update because I feel like the whole village has fallen in love with William and he is on our minds all the time lately. William is becoming increasingly tired but after his catnaps, he is alert and we are able to enjoy this time with him. Julie and Ryan are taking turns sitting with William and holding his hand. His brothers also take their turns having special time with William and they too sit and hold his hand. These moments are very sweet and tender.
William always perks up for his visits with James. It means the world to James when Julie and Ryan tell him how William changes when they are together. Tonight as we attempted to leave to go to swim practice, William cried that he didn't want James to leave. Guess who didn't swim today? How could we say no to this sweet boy? He's got all of us wrapped around his finger! William doesn't have a lot of energy but he still beat James at 2 out of 3 games of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii.
Julie and Ryan appreciate all the prayers, cards, emails, messages of love and support. I am also grateful for the delicious strawberry jam and jam vehicles (biscuits) dropped at their door today! And thank you all for all the nice comments written to me and my son on this blog and on Julie's Facebook page.
William always perks up for his visits with James. It means the world to James when Julie and Ryan tell him how William changes when they are together. Tonight as we attempted to leave to go to swim practice, William cried that he didn't want James to leave. Guess who didn't swim today? How could we say no to this sweet boy? He's got all of us wrapped around his finger! William doesn't have a lot of energy but he still beat James at 2 out of 3 games of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii.
Julie and Ryan appreciate all the prayers, cards, emails, messages of love and support. I am also grateful for the delicious strawberry jam and jam vehicles (biscuits) dropped at their door today! And thank you all for all the nice comments written to me and my son on this blog and on Julie's Facebook page.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Ode to Angry Birds
Last year, during William's bone marrow stem cell transplant at UCSF we were introduced to BayKids, an organization that "empowers children facing serious medical challenges to express themselves through the art and magic of filmmaking." They partnership with local hospitals, teaching "digital filmmaking skills to hospitalized children. Through [their] programs, children discover their own unique voice and experience the healing power of self-expression." And they are awesome! What a gift they bring to the children and their families.
They help the children come up with ideas of stories to tell and how to tell it on film. Some conduct interviews, give tours, share a creative story, etc. William chose Angry Birds as a theme (big surprise) and stop motion animation as his method. We spent months slowly crafting the construction paper figures and William planned how the story would be told and shot. Since BayKids only comes to UCSF on certain days, we carefully coordinated his last treatment to be there when he could do the final filming of his project. The talented volunteers take over from there with editing and final production. I suppose William could have been a part of that too, but he was done with treatment at UCSF at that time.
Each year BayKids hosts a Movie Premier featuring kids from the BayKids Moviemakers Program at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland. William and his film were one of the handful to be chosen to be honored and celebrated at this year's event at the de Young Art Museum! What an honor! The kids are interviewed and honored on stage. Each of their films is also screened by the entire audience. William and our family were really looking forward to this event. We even took William into the hospital on Thursday for blood transfusions just to give him a boost to make the day a good day. Today is that day. Unfortunately, we decided on Thursday evening that his weakening condition was not going to allow him to attend.
Our great friend, Zack, came up with a brilliant and very generous idea. He would attend in William's honor and videotape the whole thing for him. Wow. Problem solved and what a gift. William didn't even have a chance to be upset about not attending because he liked the alternative so much. I also think he is coming to an understanding that he just isn't able to travel outside the house any longer. The ideas and possibilities improved. William was able to FaceTime with Zack via iPad when Zack accepted his award. William was able to give a brief speech via FaceTime. The iPad was connected to and broadcast over the house system so the audience could hear him. Oh, the technology! Thank you to Zack, and his brother, Matt, for going to such great lengths to make this special for William. (And for braving the traffic and parking nightmare during Bay to Breakers today in the the same vicinity!)
I suppose William would say one of the perks of this format was snoozing through the parts he wasn't interested in. :)
Enjoy the show!
They help the children come up with ideas of stories to tell and how to tell it on film. Some conduct interviews, give tours, share a creative story, etc. William chose Angry Birds as a theme (big surprise) and stop motion animation as his method. We spent months slowly crafting the construction paper figures and William planned how the story would be told and shot. Since BayKids only comes to UCSF on certain days, we carefully coordinated his last treatment to be there when he could do the final filming of his project. The talented volunteers take over from there with editing and final production. I suppose William could have been a part of that too, but he was done with treatment at UCSF at that time.
Each year BayKids hosts a Movie Premier featuring kids from the BayKids Moviemakers Program at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland. William and his film were one of the handful to be chosen to be honored and celebrated at this year's event at the de Young Art Museum! What an honor! The kids are interviewed and honored on stage. Each of their films is also screened by the entire audience. William and our family were really looking forward to this event. We even took William into the hospital on Thursday for blood transfusions just to give him a boost to make the day a good day. Today is that day. Unfortunately, we decided on Thursday evening that his weakening condition was not going to allow him to attend.
Our great friend, Zack, came up with a brilliant and very generous idea. He would attend in William's honor and videotape the whole thing for him. Wow. Problem solved and what a gift. William didn't even have a chance to be upset about not attending because he liked the alternative so much. I also think he is coming to an understanding that he just isn't able to travel outside the house any longer. The ideas and possibilities improved. William was able to FaceTime with Zack via iPad when Zack accepted his award. William was able to give a brief speech via FaceTime. The iPad was connected to and broadcast over the house system so the audience could hear him. Oh, the technology! Thank you to Zack, and his brother, Matt, for going to such great lengths to make this special for William. (And for braving the traffic and parking nightmare during Bay to Breakers today in the the same vicinity!)
I suppose William would say one of the perks of this format was snoozing through the parts he wasn't interested in. :)
Enjoy the show!
Friday, May 18, 2012
Best Friends
And it's Lisa again. I just have to start this blog with a statement of the obvious: I love that boy. I just love him.
And I love our boys together. They had a really good visit today. William really perked up when James arrived and he smiled and laughed when James read "Walter the Farting Dog". Ahh, potty humor. James understands that time is precious and it looked like the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders this afternoon after we left. James had a really rough visit on Wednesday night (maybe it was Tuesday, we are tired). William was very irritated (very irritated for William, less irritated than me in commute traffic) and James could sense this. William wasn't always awake and wasn't always making sense when he was talking. On a couple of occasions, I thought James was going to shoot through the roof with anxiety. Why put my kid through this? Because life isn't fair. And this is our life. And it is important to take our son through this transition time so he too can transition. Yes, it is painful for him but he goes to visit to honor his friendship with his best friend, that is all he has to offer. We do not believe (and I say "we", but my husband is the psychologist who gently guides us with his brain bending to right my wrongs) that you hide the tough stuff from your kids because it teaches them that you are not honest with them and you believe they are not strong enough to handle the tough stuff. We also bring our son down this tough road because pretending this experience is anything less than the most painful moment of his life is disrespectful to his friend. Any questions? I didn't think so.
So we had a bad visit the other night and when we go home we just sat in the driveway and finished talking about what was happening. James really hoped that we would get one more good visit with William and I am so glad that happened today. At the end of our talk in the car James said, "I'm really excited for William to go to heaven". Heartbreaking, yes. But my son has compassion for his best bud and I couldn't be more proud. In tough moments James has cried that he wants to go to heaven with William because he will miss him too much. I understand this is a ten year-old boy solving an immediate problem for himself as a ten year-old boy would do but still heartbreaking. But this time he didn't mention going with William, he wasn't thinking about himself, only William. It was important for James to go through this. If he only saw William when he was feeling well, it would be much harder to understand. Adults understand cancer sucks, James gets it now too. And James understands everyone is working around the clock to keep William comfortable but he sees that there is still suffering and he wants his friend to be free of pain. We all want that.
So maybe you are thinking, "Hey Lisa, get your own blog! We read this blog to check up on the Murdocks". Fine. I'll give you your update. The Murdocks are also taking their family through this same transition. They are no longer allowing any visitors or returning calls or emails. They are hunkering down and nurturing their boys. Tonight Ryan is at the Father and Sons camp-out with Clark, Cameron, Nathan, and Soren. They all need special time with their parents and they need time with William. An overwhelming task for any of us, but Julie and Ryan are leading their children through while also balancing the care of one very tough boy.
And speaking of care- I mentioned the term "Momcologist" in my last blog, a term that I love. I propose to add "Mompharmacist" to Julie's credentials. I'm sure other parents have this same experience but Julie and Ryan are so well-versed in the drugs, and I mean the really big expensive and powerful drugs, it is amazing to me. And Julie, you know me (and my appreciation for a good little white pill) as well as anyone, so you know if I say you are a "Momcpharmacist", well that is an honor higher then Mother-of-the-Year.
And I love our boys together. They had a really good visit today. William really perked up when James arrived and he smiled and laughed when James read "Walter the Farting Dog". Ahh, potty humor. James understands that time is precious and it looked like the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders this afternoon after we left. James had a really rough visit on Wednesday night (maybe it was Tuesday, we are tired). William was very irritated (very irritated for William, less irritated than me in commute traffic) and James could sense this. William wasn't always awake and wasn't always making sense when he was talking. On a couple of occasions, I thought James was going to shoot through the roof with anxiety. Why put my kid through this? Because life isn't fair. And this is our life. And it is important to take our son through this transition time so he too can transition. Yes, it is painful for him but he goes to visit to honor his friendship with his best friend, that is all he has to offer. We do not believe (and I say "we", but my husband is the psychologist who gently guides us with his brain bending to right my wrongs) that you hide the tough stuff from your kids because it teaches them that you are not honest with them and you believe they are not strong enough to handle the tough stuff. We also bring our son down this tough road because pretending this experience is anything less than the most painful moment of his life is disrespectful to his friend. Any questions? I didn't think so.
So we had a bad visit the other night and when we go home we just sat in the driveway and finished talking about what was happening. James really hoped that we would get one more good visit with William and I am so glad that happened today. At the end of our talk in the car James said, "I'm really excited for William to go to heaven". Heartbreaking, yes. But my son has compassion for his best bud and I couldn't be more proud. In tough moments James has cried that he wants to go to heaven with William because he will miss him too much. I understand this is a ten year-old boy solving an immediate problem for himself as a ten year-old boy would do but still heartbreaking. But this time he didn't mention going with William, he wasn't thinking about himself, only William. It was important for James to go through this. If he only saw William when he was feeling well, it would be much harder to understand. Adults understand cancer sucks, James gets it now too. And James understands everyone is working around the clock to keep William comfortable but he sees that there is still suffering and he wants his friend to be free of pain. We all want that.
 |
| Best Friends |
And speaking of care- I mentioned the term "Momcologist" in my last blog, a term that I love. I propose to add "Mompharmacist" to Julie's credentials. I'm sure other parents have this same experience but Julie and Ryan are so well-versed in the drugs, and I mean the really big expensive and powerful drugs, it is amazing to me. And Julie, you know me (and my appreciation for a good little white pill) as well as anyone, so you know if I say you are a "Momcpharmacist", well that is an honor higher then Mother-of-the-Year.
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