Princess Bandit

Now turn away,
'Cause I'm awful just to see,
'Cause all my hair's
abandoned all my body,

Four and a half year old Bandit Lee Way, sat with both of her parents in the car. Lyn and Gerard where worried about their little girl, she had been complaining of stomach pains for a while now. Their family doctor said it was nothing, probably just making the pains up for attention. But her parents knew her better than that. So they were taking her to a specialist in a hospital just outside of New York City to get the test results

That day the Way's found out their little princess had Leukemia. Bandit didn't understand what this meant, but her mommy and daddy explained that she was sick and she would have to go to the hospital for a little while. This didn't frighten the little girl, she didn't want to be sick, she wanted to get better.

Pretty soon the only child of the Way's began undergoing chemotherapy, and she was on medication on top of that. Soon her beautiful long deep brown hair began to fall out. Lynz would cry, she never in a million years wanted her baby girl to suffer like this. "Momma, don't cry," Bandit told her mother one day. "I will be better. The doctors promised me, member?" Her bravery as a child was out standing, this only made Lynz feel worse.

"My little angel," her mother would call her. "So brave and so strong." Lynz smiled, doing everything her little girl ever wanted. They would play dress up, have tea parties with the other cancer ridden children on the ward. Bandit's parents did everything they could to help the children's cancer ward. They donated, did fund raisers, bought new chairs for other parents. They thought it would help them, but it never did help.

Oh my agony
Know that I will never marry,

Gerard would sit with his little girl and play games, tell her everything she wanted to hear. He even called in a lot of favors to get her idol in, even though it didn't take much for little Bandit to meet Taylor Swift. She was over the moon to meet the girl she looked up to. Taylor sang songs for Bandit before doing a small concert for the other children in the ward. It lifted everyone's spirits.

"How are you doing my little princess?" Gerard asked her one night. She just looked at him with tears welding up in her eyes. "Do you want mommy, water? What do you need sweetheart?" he ask, slightly panicking. He hated to see her cry.

"Daddy, I never get to have my princess wedding." she told him softly with tears streaming down her face. Gerard just held her close and cried himself. "I never get my prince or my pony. I don't get the castle, daddy." She cried to her father. They had been waiting for this day for a long time now. She was being so brave, but they knew she was bound to break at some point. "I'm not a princess, daddy. I'm not."

"Yes you are, baby girl. You are my one and only princess, Bandit." He reassured her, rocking her gently to get her to sleep. "You will get that pony, the prince, even the castle. I'll make sure you get all of those things, princess. I promise you." As she fell asleep in his arms, he held her close wishing his baby girl would get better.

Baby, I'm just soggy from the Chen
But counting down the days to go.

Bandit's health improved for a little while and she was able to go home for her sixth birthday, much to her parents delight. The doctors said she was a little fighter, willing to go through anything to survive the terrible cancer that riddled her little body. But four days after her sixth birthday, she had a high fever. Fearing that something had gone wrong, her parents rushed her right back to hospital.

"Mommy, I don't want to be here. I wanna go home." Bandit whined to her mother, as more tests had began. Lynz just shook her head, telling her she was sorry. "Daddy, tell her. Tell mommy to let me go home. I want to go home." She cried, she cuddled her daughter, but the crying continued. She couldn't blame her daughter, it was horrible in the hospital.

The doctor had returned a few hours after Bandit had settled down. Gerard and Lynz knew by the look on the female doctor's face that this was something neither of them even wanted to hear again. "I'm so sorry," was all the doctor had to say. "It's worse than before. I'm truly sorry." Lynz broke down, as Gerard tried to interpreted what he had just heard.

"I don't want to have any more medicines." Bandit told the doctor and her parents. "I wanna go up to heaven and be a princess." Gerard and Lynz, heartbroken let their little princess have what she wanted. Her body had taken enough, her parents realized that.

Day by day, Bandit was becoming weaker. She was given small doses of morphine to block out any pain or discomfort she was experiencing. this led to her being constantly asleep, much to her parents happiness. They would sit by her side day by day, maybe getting to see her awake for ten minutes.

They were ready to let their daughter go, but they knew she couldn't handle anymore. She couldn't handle the medication, the operations, the tests. Her body just wasn't able to cope. Their family's visited Bandit over a period of time, heartbroken at what a big decision this little girl had to make all by herself.

Gerard sat with her one day, holding her hand, as Lynz looked out the window. She hated to see her little girl in so much pain when all she wanted to do was go. Gerard hated to see both the most important people in his life in pain, he hated that Bandit was going to leave them soon. But they all knew it was just a matter of time. "It's okay baby. You can go, we will be okay, I promise." Gerard whispered. "Go Princess Bandit, go." With that little hushed voice of the man she loved the most, she drifted off to a painless and happy sleep.