No Greater Love - Mother Love

“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

There is no greater love between humans than a mother's love for her child. Jenni Lake, a teenager, demonstrates that love as she makes the decision to die so her child could live.

Jenni Lake, 17, of Pocatello, Idaho, was diagnosed with cancer in October 2010 after she began having severe migraines. Doctors in Salt Lake City discovered the cause after an MRI: a stage three astrocytoma, a tumor on the side of her brain. They gave her a 30 percent chance of surviving another two years.

Her mother, Diana Phillips, said Jenni, who is the third of eight children, seemed more upset by the possibility that radiation would leave her sterile. "When they told her that she might not be able to have kids, she got upset," Phillips said.

By March, her tumors began to shrink. But in May, Jenni learned she was pregnant.

Phillips said the family's oncologist told them "she would either have to terminate the pregnancy and continue the treatments, or stop the treatments, knowing that it could continue to grow again."

Phillips said her daughter never considered having an abortion. She worried the 10-week-old child had undergone two rounds of chemotherapy.

On November 9, just one month before her 18th birthday, Jenni gave birth to a healthy boy, named Chad Michael after his grandfathers. After the delivery, she told the nurse, "I'm done. I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe." Family hoped she could resume the chemotherapy.

However, doctors discovered the tumors had gotten larger and spread to her spinal column. Nothing could be done. Less than two weeks later, she succumbed to cancer.

Jenni's last wish was that her baby lay beside her. Although she had lost her sight to the tumors, her last words were, "I can kind of see him."

The child’s father, 19-year-old Nathan Wittman, will raise the baby with help from his mother and Phillips.

Read the full story HERE  Friend Jenni on her Facebook Page

2012 April Lorier Perspective