The Darbys are a close family. Steve has 3 brothers. One brother we are very close to and are only 550 miles away. But, the Darby family I am going to be speaking about is my Darby family. Steve, husband, myself, Lori, and our 4 sons-Marc, Cody, Austin and Benjamin. We have had a very difficult life.
Marc was our first and he was very ill. He had severe cerebral palsy. But, Marc was adorable and such a happy little boy. Cody came next and he was the sweetest baby and little boy ever! Cody just had an instinct to protect Marc. Cody always looked after Marc.
Then, Austin came along. He was a fireball full of energy and very coordinated. His athletic ability was very obvious by the time he was 3. Finally, came Ben. Ben was a true gift from God. See, Ben was born 3 days after Marc went to Heaven. I truly believe God let us keep Marc until it was time for Ben to get here. It was a very strange occurrence in our family. We went from our kids being Marc, Cody and Austin, to Cody, Austin and Ben in a manner of 3 days. Very hard on the mind.
As the time went by, we were coping to living without our Marc. Sometimes Austin would cry saying he missed Marc. At bedtime prayer, Austin asked God to give Marc a hug and kiss for him. Cody wasn’t progressing as he should. He withdrew from his friends, said he never wanted a birthday party again. He was really depressed. We got him counseling. We were present, but Cody began to withdraw from us. He and I were very close, but Cody wanted to hang out with the wrong crowd. He had a rough couple of years with several DUIs, and short weekend jail time. No one had any resources for helping Cody. I tried to get him into a inpatient facility, but he just wouldn’t cooperate. We ended up loosing him too due to depression and unresolved grief.