Comment by bitwize

Comment by bitwize a day ago

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One thing that Xers and xennials grew up with that later generations did not necessarily -- and unlike Atari consoles, wood paneling, and staying outside till the street lights came on, they're unlikely to yell to clouds about it on TikTok -- is the phenomenon of "knowing that one kid in school who died of leukemia".

Growing up, our leukemia kid was Donny Miceli. He was a great kid -- friendly, active, and athletic, even throughout all but the latest courses of his therapy. Could've been the Phineas to any number of potential Gene Forresters out there.

When our teacher announced that Donny had died, I was saddened but in a "didn't show it" way. It wasn't a blow to the system. It was something we all had seen a long time coming.

The school planted an apple tree in the courtyard in Donny's honor, with like a ceremony and everything.

How blessed are the later generations, that far fewer trees will be planted in school courtyards in recognition of students who are no longer there, due to leukemia.

ojbyrne a day ago

My sister, sadly. Long time ago now, but definitely filled with mixed emotions from this article.

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stevoski a day ago

Jason Bell was the name, I think, of the kid in my high school who died from leukaemia.

Popular, athletic, good-looking guy. Then one day it was announced in the school news that he had passed away.

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jltsiren a day ago

That depends on the size of the school you went to. With 500 kids, it's unlikely to have even a single leukemia case in 13 years. It gets more likely with 1000 kids. And if you went to a giant school with 2000 kids, there probably was a case or two.

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  • billforsternz 12 hours ago

    A very HN reply to a poetic and heartfelt comment.

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    • jltsiren 11 hours ago

      A reply to a comment with a false generalization and a personal anecdote.

      I'm gen X from a country where schools typically have 200-500 students. Small enough that rare things like leukemia didn't happen in most schools. They were something that happened to a kid in the news but not to a kid you kind of knew in your school. People generally didn't talk about leukemia or think about it, because it did not affect the life they experienced.

      Rare things still happened, but they were different for each school. In my school, someone I knew was murdered while visiting her family in Russia.

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bena a day ago

No offense, I don't know anyone who died of leukemia or even had it.

I think you may be experiencing a bit of the "blue car" effect. Of course everyone who went to your school knew someone who died of leukemia. They all knew the same kid.

And once you get to college, I wouldn't be surprised if you had run into a few other people who also knew people who died of leukemia.

But it was not as common an occurrence as you seem to think it was.

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  • Glyptodon 4 hours ago

    FWIW, someone I know thought the kid with cancer was getting away with playing hookie, and only discovered what was actually happening years later (when we were randomly catching up). Similarly, through a personal connection to the cancer kid, I learned another kid had survived Leukemia in elementary. And I don't think almost anyone else knew. So it's not really a given that everyone even knows. (At a high school with like 7 or 8 hundred kids.)

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  • mlyle a day ago

    It's like 4 per 100k kids per year from ages 0-19, but a pretty high portion of that initial incidence is in elementary school ages -- so 1 per 1500 or so over the elementary to middle school years. And that's just leukemia.

    Between school sizes, mixing of schools going to middle school, and auxiliary networks through family and parent networks-- you were pretty dang likely to know someone or know of someone who was affected by childhood cancer. No, it's not a universal experience.

    In my extended social circle, I know of 3 cases of childhood cancer that would have had a high fatality rate 2-3 decades ago.

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  • dontTREATonme 19 hours ago

    Yea got to agree, no child I knew personally or even knew of in school had cancer. However, two of my close friends in school died of other causes. And a sibling of a friend also died. So I definitely experienced loss.

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