A song of thanks and love for Izaiah
KENETRIA ALLEN, MOTHER OF IZAIAH WHITE: “We at least got to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him.”
By Gene Warner
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Last Thursday evening, as little Izaiah White lay unconscious, about 20 of his relatives and family friends gathered in the intensive care unit of Women&Children’s Hospital to throw him a brief birthday party, complete with balloons and a stuffed bear.
After a brief prayer, everyone sang “Happy Birthday” — everyone who wasn’t crying, that is.
The idea was to give Izaiah — the boy who had life breathed back into him by Buffalo police the day before—a party in case he didn’t make it to his second birthday June 17.
Izaiah didn’t make it. He died early Sunday morning, 23 months to the day he was born, apparently from a severe allergic reaction to medication.
But the memory of that impromptu birthday party has brought plenty of smiles to his parents, Kenetria Allen and Chauncey White.
“It meant the world to us,” Allen said Wednesday in the couple’s Black Rock home. “We at least got to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him.
“I felt he had a big smile on his face, even if he couldn’t smile,” White added. “It took the grief out of my heart.”
Nothing can be sadder than burying a child, but White and Allen are thankful for so many elements of the Izaiah White story.
They are so glad that they got to say goodbye, over a 3 1/2 day period from last Wednesday afternoon to early Sunday morning. They are thankful to the Buffalo police and firefighters who helped keep their little boy alive on the family’s mad dash down Elmwood Avenue to the hospital.
And they are so thrilled that they had Izaiah, who had Down syndrome, for almost two years.
Izaiah never walked by himself, although he used a walker to chase his 5-year-old sister, Kamaria, all over the house. He loved watching cartoons, especially “SpongeBob SquarePants.” And he got a big kick out of the Buffalo Bills rap song often played on WGR radio, moving his head from side to side and mimicking the words.
And he loved to laugh and smile, even when he would be spitting up in the middle of the night.
“I was just drawn to him,” White said. “He made me want to be a better person because of his special needs.”
“I would not have changed anything about him, even the fact that he was having difficulty with Down syndrome,” Allen said. “I’m thankful for the time I did get to spend with him. God didn’t have to give Izaiah to me for 23 months. That was a blessing.”
Friday, city officials held a news conference to salute the Buffalo police officers and firefighters who helped save Izaiah’s life, after he had stopped breathing in the back seat of his parents’ vehicle two days earlier.
During the family’s rush down Elmwood, White was blaring his horn, going through red lights and driving on the sidewalk, when necessary, to reach Women & Children’s. When he saw two police cars outside the Wilson Farms convenience store at Auburn Avenue, he stopped quickly, jumped out of the car and summoned police.
Police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians breathed life back into Izaiah and took him to the hospital. He never really regained consciousness, although he did open his eyes briefly.
“I think God allowed us to spend those extra days with him,” Allen said. “If he had been taken away from us last Wednesday, it would have been devastating. Officers [Jose] Vega and [Derrick] Ferrell gave us what we needed. They gave us time. They gave us the chance to cope with it and say goodbye.”
Izaiah’s chances for survival kept changing while he was in the hospital, but the prognosis wasn’t good.
“They told us if he was to survive, he wouldn’t know us, that he wouldn’t be able to play or read or eat on his own, that he basically would be a vegetable,” Allen said.
“I would have accepted that,” White said. “That still would have been my son.”
Saturday, it became obvious that Izaiah wasn’t going to make it. His mother held him close for a couple of hours, hoping that her motherly touch could make a difference. Then early Sunday morning, doctors told the couple that their little boy was brain-dead. So the parents asked that he be taken off the respirator.
“Afterward, we asked to hold him, just to say our goodbyes,” White said. “He probably couldn’t hear us, but I got some peace from him.”
Laughs, tears and smiles are all part of the couple’s grieving process. When White gets overwhelmed by the sadness, he holds something of Izaiah’s, to give him some comfort. “I still feel he’s here, even though I can’t hold him,” he said.
His funeral has been scheduled for noon Tuesday in Greater Emmanuel Temple Church, 151 Richmond Ave. Izaiah will be buried in Forest Lawn.
“He doesn’t need legs now,” his mother said. “He has the wings he needs to be free. He can fly now.”
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