Vincent’s Story

Site created on June 19, 2010

Welcome to Vincent's website! You can get started by reading his story and the latest journal entries. There's also a photo gallery and a place for you to write in our guestbook.

If you are on Facebook, you can visit Vincent's profile for additional updates.

To avoid confusion, please be aware that any Tribute Donations "in honor of Vincent" are sent to the CaringBridge organization and not to the Stringer family.



One day in early May 2010, Vincent seemed to be a bit more fussy than usual, and Rebecca was rubbing his belly when she felt what seemed to be a lump.  She brought him in the next day to the pediatrician, but since Vincent was crying on the examining table, she couldn't feel anything unusual, but told Rebecca to keep an eye on it.  

Ten days later, Rebecca was changing Vincent's diaper when she actually saw the lump - which had grown significantly in a short amount of time.   Even though our pediatrician was out of the country at the time, we managed to get an appointment in shortly thereafter with an excellent surgeon.

He couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary either, because once again, Vincent didn't like the feel of the examining table... but since Becca was so worried, he ordered an ultrasound.

The ultrasound tech was such  a sweet man - he made us comfortable while Rebecca held Vincent, and then said these words - "....Mom, you were right, there's something there."  That "something" turned out, after weeks of tests sent to the mainland and to various cancer specialists, to be a extrarenal rhabdoid tumor in the liver.  

After an initial 15 weeks of agressive chemo treatments, the tumor shrunk before growing back and spreading to Vincent's lung. Due to concerns about the lung lesion, a liver transplant was not an option. As of late September, Vincent was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and was put on some experimental chemo to try to shrink the tumors.

During the months of October and November, Vincent's health declined rapidly.  He died November 20th, 2010, at home, surrounded by his family.   

Newest Update

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Journal entry by rebecca stringer —

Ugh.  It's been so long since I posted here.

Even though you haven't heard from me on this website, I have been writing almost every day.  Sometimes I write letters to Vincent, sometimes I write to God.  Most times I just rant.  

I've finally decided to make some of that public.  I know I can get good feedback, and you guys who care will know how we're really doing.  I have to say though, it's really, really hard for me to visit this caringbridge page.  In fact, I just don't want to do it, at least not often.  So I started a blog.  

So for those of you that are used to checking this website for updates, please accept my apologies, I know that you have all been so wonderful to keep up with what's going on with our family.  For those of you who are still interested, you can check out my uncensored grief blog.  It's called "Sermons I Never Preached." 
Here it is.  

sermonsineverpreached.blogspot.com/
Read More of the journal posted Feb 20, 2011
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