5-year-old boy prepares his own obituary before dying of pediatric cancer

KTRK logo
Friday, July 13, 2018
5-year-old boy writes his own obituary before dying of pediatric cancer

Family members are mourning the death of a 5-year-old boy who lost his battle with pediatric cancer.

With the help of his parents, Garrett prepared his own obituary to tell the world just what kind of a kid he was. He was diagnosed with cancer nine months ago and died last Friday.

"What really bothered me was he always asked, 'Why am I always sick?'" his mother, Emilie Matthias, said.

Those were words that broke Ryan and Emilie Matthias' heart for nearly a year.

"We never necessarily talked about his funeral so we never had the conversation with him that he was going to die, but we had a lot of conversations around it," Emilie told WPLG.

Garrett, a superhero fan and a lover of thrash metal music, was perhaps better known as Great Garrett Underpants. He was not a typical kid. His obituary is a reflection of that.

"When I read it, I was thinking 'Wow, sounds like Garrett just yapping at me,'" Ryan said.

Garrett detailed all the things he loved and all that he didn't. He hated pants and needles and the illness.

Garrett made also some final requests: "No funeral, because those are sad."

Instead he wants a party with five bounce houses, one for each year he lived, a visit from Batman and his favorite treat, snow cones.

The most unique request was a symbolic burial ceremony.

"I want to be burned (like when Thor's Mommy died) and made into a tree so I can live in it when I'm a gorilla," Garrett told his parents.

"We've cried oceans of tears in the last nine months and I think this is one of the things that we can do to make his day," Emilie said.

Garrett's celebration of life will take place this Saturday.

The symbolic burial and his request for fireworks will happen at sunset.

Copyright © 2024 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.