Mamamia Team Sunday 23 September 2012 8:55am

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Maya and Ronan

On August 3, 2010, Maya Thompson started a blog.

Her three-year-old son Ronan had just been diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a rare but common childhood cancer, and she needed a way to keep family and friends up to date with Ronan’s journey.

She called the blog Rockstar Ronan and it has been read by almost 7 million people since it was created. What’s incredible about Maya’s blog is the honesty in her writing. She didn’t try to sugarcoat the situation. Instead, she wrote about the realities of being a parent of a child with “mother fucking cancer” – about the hurt, the fear, the chemotherapy and the radiation, the long days and the blurry nights.

“Being alone during these nights I find myself looking back at my life before this. It was so perfect it was unreal. Did I take too much for granted?Absolutely. While I was home today I walked into my closet and was immediately filled with embarrassment and shame. All those clothes, shoes, purses…. and for what? None of that matters. None of that is real happiness.
Once we get through this and are home with Ronan, I have a new plan for how I will live my life with my beautiful family. A new life for all of us full of wanting and needing nothing except for the love of family and friends that surround us.”

Maya wrote about every feeling and every moment. And even after her “baby” passed away on May 9, 2011, she continued to write emotional posts to her beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed son.

“After you passed away, I sat and kissed your little cold lips about a dozen times. I wanted to sit in that room with you and kiss you forever. Instead, I now get to sit and cry about how I will never be able to kiss your little lips again. You had the best lips too. They were so full and soft. Your daddy and I were talking about you the other day and how unbelievably perfect you were. I keep thinking you were too perfect for this world? Your beauty was unlike anything that I have ever seen before. I don’t understand why you had to be taken away from us. I will never understand this which is why something has to be done, Ro. After this summer is over, I’m going to figure out a plan. I have got to help other kids like you who deserve to survive this disease. I will do it for you and in your honor. I know this will not bring you back, but I know it is something that would make you proud and smile. I miss your smile so much.”

One of the people reading Maya’s blog was Taylor Swift. The 22-year-old singer was said to be so moved by the posts she wrote a song about Ronan.  She took the words Maya wrote about her son and turned them into music. The song was called ‘Ronan.’

Last week Taylor sung ‘Ronan’ at a Stand Up to Cancer Benefit. [Text continues after the video]

This is the post where Maya describes what it meant to receive the call from Taylor:

Taylor Swift

“Hey Maya, it’s Taylor Swift…”

“What???” I thought to myself. Taylor Swift just called my cell phone.

“Hi Maya! How are you?” she said in that sweet darling voice of hers.

“Hi Taylor! I am well, how are you?” as if she was just another one of my everyday friends.

My calmness soon turned to complete and utter frozen shock when these words came out of her mouth.

“I wrote a song for Ronan,” she said. The tears started pouring down my cheeks as soon as I heard her say those words. But her words didn’t stop there. Not only did she write a song for you, but she wanted to know if it would be alright to preform it on the nationally televised Stand Up 2 Cancer show which is on every major network and is seen in over 100 countries. She wanted to know if she could use a picture of you in the background while she sang the song. She wanted to make me co author of the song with her. She talked about how from reading this blog and following our story, has inspired her and how amazing she thinks I am and all I am doing, to bring awareness to childhood cancer. She went on and on about some other things, which I tried to understand and reply to, but I couldn’t focus on a thing besides the fact that she wrote a song, for you. That she hadn’t forgotten about your beautiful blue eyes and our love story. One so powerful that Taylor Swift decided to write a song about it.

This cannot be real. But then I remembered, this was you she was talking about. Of course this is real, because you are that beautiful and that amazing and our love is that strong. I don’t even remember what I said to Taylor as had buried my head into your blanket that I take with me everywhere and all I could pretty much do was cry and tell her thank you. How do you even find the words to thank somebody for something like this? I was a blubbering mess telling her how much this meant to me as she was helping me keep your memory alive and helping me to do amazing things. How if I had to pick my dream person to be tied to your name, it would be her because she is full of so much pure goodness, just like you.

I love you to the moon and back my spicy monkey boy. Thank you for all you are doing. Thank you, Taylor for this gift you have given us. I promise to make you both proud of all the goodness that is going to come.

I miss you, Ronan. I miss you, I love you and I hope you are safe.

After Taylor sang the song, Maya said: “It was hard for me to focus on the words coming out of her mouth, I was so impacted by the emotion on her face… I could see her sadness. Everybody was crying and saying it was the most beautiful thing they’ve ever heard.”

The song went to number 1 on the US iTunes chart, and according to the New York Times, it’s been downloaded more than 327,000 times. Maya Thompson is donating her profits to the Ronan Thompson Foundation. Taylor Swift is donating 100 per cent of hers to cancer charities.

In case you can’t view the video – here are the lyrics to ‘Ronan’.