| "James Just died..." Syd, December 18/01 James' Obituary: Birrell, James Anthony, 8 years old, left for his House in Heaven, on Tuesday, December 18, 2001. James is the cherished son of Sydney and Pamela Birrell, beloved brother of Rebecca and Benjamin, and grandson of Bruce and Primrose Birrell and Peggy and late Ralph Braund. James will be sadly missed by many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. A memorial service to celebrate his life will be held at Murray Street Baptist Church, 175 Murray St, Peterborough, on Saturday, December 29th, 2:00 p.m., children especially welcome. The Birrell's send heartfelt thanks to their friends, family, and the compassionate army of medical supporters. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to the James Birrell Fund for Neuroblastoma at The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Ave, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, Canada, or Camp Oochigeas, a cancer camp for children, 60 St. Clair Avenue East, Suite 404, Toronto, ON, M4T 1N5, Canada. " James, a boy who showed us we could sing when we thought we could only cry." 5:40am Dec.18,2001 With heavy hearts, we regret to announce that James Birrell has gone to his House in Heaven. |
| SUPERJAMES When i was growing up there were two very important people in my life. They were Syd and Pam Birrell. Syd directed our choir at church, he made up this song called "you'd better not uhm"...its was all flats and scary and it went like this "you'd better not uhm, you'd better not uhm, cause Syd don't like it when you uhm". I think i always remember that because i remember to say what i'm thinking, or try to anyways. Pam...when i would be grumpy she would say "can you make that face any madder?" until i got so mad i'd run off and have to laugh. I remember that Pam told me she was pregnant, and at that time i was 6 years old and i was SO excited for her to have another baby to go along with Rebecca. After James was born i'd hang around their house and play with Rebecca while James was sleeping. It wasn't long before Rebecca and James were a couple years older and Ben was born. As all of us grew up i'd play with them while Pam or Syd would sleep or something, we'd play trains and house and castle and watch thomas the tank engine. I remember exactly what everybit of their house looked like, maybe more then i remembered my own house. Time passed and we moved away. I remember one night, i think it was around september and the phone rang and i woke up. In the morning my dad told me that Syd called and that Pam had cancer. I didn't think much of it, cause i really didn't know much about cancer besides the fact that thats how my Grandma died. Her treatment went on and we went to visit in the summer. She seemed a little different, but normal to me. A little while after we got another phone call and this time it was to say "James has cancer". It wasn't any normal cancer though. James had Neurblastoma. A cancer that mostly occurs in children that attacks the central nervous system and spreads throughout the entire body. He was going through all sorts of viguorous treatment, but i really didn't know what was going on. We'd visit them every summer though. And go out in the house boat. We'd get to drive it sometimes. James always used to drive it, with his train hat on. I remember how Syd used to say "JAMES turn left!" and he'd know exactly where to turn. And then when i was driving syd would say "CAROLYNN, turn right!" and i'd say "which way is right?" The time of James passed by, it seemed like there'd be SUCH bad times and then all of the sudden he'd be fine. One day near the end of grade 6 i remember we had gotten an email about how something was going terribly wrong with james. I printed it off and brought it to school so i could read it over and over. It was "Praise and Prayer Friday!" The next thing i knew i was reading it outloud to the class, but i couldn't finish, i was crying so hard. I went through Jr. High with James always in the back of my mind. Somedays i'd forget all about it and then all of the sudden we'd get these frantic emails and my days at school would be horrible. My friends would help me alot though, and pray for James and ask me all about how he was doing. Everyone that was ever in my class ALWAYS knew about James. One time at school i was having such a horrible day and then my friends started the SUPERJAMES days with me. Whenever i was having a bad day i just had to look at what James was going through and see how much he inspired me. He always said such cool things too....like he has such an amazing understanding of what he was going though. He saw through his pain and knew that God was there. He was just not a normal boy. He had a very obvious gift of being able to understand things in such a different way. Once his school needed a new playground. So he went around with his dad to a bunch of buisnesses and asked for money, when he had raised enough money he designed a playground and had it built "with lots of help from adults" for his friends at school. When it was it was hard to see that James would ever get better having cancer became a normal thing. The Birrells got a cottage and we went to visit it. It had a little loft. We played at the lake with them. But this cottage was called "cancer free zone" you could not be worried or even talk about cancer while you were there. James had a dream to race in something called a soap box derby, he spent months building a car. He rode in the derby in September 2001 and came 4th even though he was the only kid with a terminal illness. By this time newspapers were writing articles about James in the Toronto star, the Peterborough newspaper and mostly the National Post. This was already after The James Birrell Fund For Neuroblastoma was already in full gear. This Summer, in August 2001. We went to visit James again. They were coming over for a swim to my friends backyard. We got a phone call right before though that said James was in the Hospital and they didn't know if he was going to make it, but Rebecca Ben and Syd were going to come over because they needed a break. I thought i'd never get to see James. While Syd, Rebecca and Ben were over and we were looking at pictures we got another phone call. James and Pam were coming over. When James got there he had a huge grin on his face and played in the backyard like any normal kid. I could not understand how this 7 year old boy had just come out of the hospital, after being afraid he might not make it through the day and here he was running around in front of me asking for more food from the fridge. Thats James. After that it was kinda like an anything could happen any day, it was like we were waiting for James to get out of his pain. In November when THE LORD OF THE RINGS came out, James got a very very special private screening of it, the WORLD PREMIER, They brought it to peterborough because he wasn't going to be able to make it to the PREMIER of the movie in Toronto the next week. There was immense security of the film while they were waiting to watch it. I guess i couldn't be surprised though, when i got home from school on DECEMBER 18th and went to read my email. I'm always excited to read the James Updates so i saved it for last. This time there was 2......the first one i read was about how James was having a horrible night. Then i opened the second one. I'm not exactly sure if i was breathing while i started crying, or if i even read the email before i did. Because it was 3 (or you could say 4) very short and powerful words: James Just Died. -Syd I guess that after that it kinda felt like it was over. Like something big had just ended. It was hard to go to school the next day, i dont think i told anyone until i burst into tears opening my locker. Right smack in the middle of my locker is a picture i took of James eating a Peach this summer. It seems like life just goes on i guess, James is gone, Hes with Jesus. I think it made me realize that there IS more kids like James out there. And that somhow there has to be a way to not let any of them go through what he did. |
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