Maya Thompson began a blog after her son Ronan’s cancer diagnosis.
By now you may have heard Taylor Swift’s heart-rending song “Ronan, ” about the too-short life of a little boy. Ms. Swift gave it an emotional performance on the Stand Up to Cancer telethon on Sept. 7, and it has been topping the charts ever since.
The real boy behind the song is Ronan Thompson, an impish 3-year-old from Phoenix with coppery blond hair and mesmerizing big blue eyes. In 2010, a few months after his third birthday, Ronan was given a diagnosis of neuroblastoma, an often deadly childhood cancer. He died on May 9, 2011, three days before he was to turn 4.
Ms. Swift learned about Ronan from a blog that his mother, Maya Thompson, began shortly after the diagnosis to keep family and friends informed. Ms. Thompson called the blog Rockstar Ronan, but she did not mince words about his illness, and her heartbreak was painfully evident in every update.
“A few weeks into it, I remember writing that I had a feeling this blog was going to get dark and ugly and scary, because it’s a horrific thing to go through, ” she said in an interview. “I wasn’t willing to sugarcoat any of this. I think a big part of why nothing gets done with childhood cancer is that everybody wants to wrap it in a cute little bow with cute little bald kids. But it’s so sad. The statistics are so awful.”
Ms. Thompson wrote about that too. Cancer is the second leading cause of death of children under 15 — after accidents — yet pediatric cancer receives only 3 to 4 percent of national cancer research funds. Although pediatric cancer is considered rare, an estimated 12, 060 new cases are expected this year among children 14 and younger. The survival rate for pediatric cancer is about 80 percent.
About 650 to 700 children a year are found to have neuroblastoma, which is a solid-tumor cancer that originates in the adrenal gland, neck, chest, abdomen or pelvis. It’s the most common cancer in infants and accounts for about 15 percent of all childhood cancer deaths. Countering these grim statistics were the pictures of Ronan, playing on the beach with his brothers, Liam and Quinn, laughing with his parents and gazing into the camera with his shocking blue eyes.
Ronan underwent rounds of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, and traveled to hospitals around the country as his parents searched for a doctor who could save him. Soon, strangers were following his story — including Ms. Swift. The blog has now been viewed by more than six million people.
Ronan spent his last days in a pediatric hospice in Phoenix with his parents and brothers. After he died, his mother continued to write tearful posts on her blog, which had turned into an open letter to her son. She wrote about a new dislike for flowers, because of what they had come to represent. She wrote about her last words to Ronan: “Let’s get out of here.” She reminisced about his favorite holiday, Halloween, and how he’d run down the hall and play with toy cars on the floor.
In November, Ms. Thompson received a call from a publicist for Ms. Swift, inviting her to meet the singer at a concert in Phoenix. “She told me how she had been reading our blog for over a year, and her parents had been reading it and they were all devastated and touched by it, ” Ms. Thompson said. “I remember crying and she was crying.”
Just a week before the cancer telethon, Ms. Thompson got a call from Ms. Swift, who said she had written a song about Ronan and wanted to give Ms. Thompson a writing credit, since it was based on her blog. Proceeds would go to cancer charities, and she wanted to show Ronan’s photo behind her as she sang.
Like the rest of the country, Ms. Thompson first heard the song during the telecast, which she watched with her husband, Woody, her sons and friends. “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, ” she said of Ms. Swift. “I could see her sadness. Everybody was crying and saying it was the most beautiful thing they’ve ever heard.”
She listened to it again and was surprised to hear so many of her own words. “I was very touched that she knew such important little intimate details about his life and death and our story, ” Ms. Thompson said.
The song quickly moved to No. 1 on the iTunes chart, and has been hovering in and out of the top 10, and has been downloaded more than 327, 000 times. Ms. Swift is donating all of her royalties to cancer charities, while Ms. Thompson’s share will go to the Ronan Thompson Foundation. She plans to use the money to help establish a neuroblastoma research and treatment center.
泰勒·斯威夫特写给癌症患儿罗南的歌
译者：seakylin
内容摘要：2010年，3岁的罗南被诊断出患有神经母细胞瘤，他的妈妈玛雅·汤姆逊在罗南确诊后不久开始写博文，引起了包括女歌手泰
勒·斯威夫特在内的许多人的关注。罗南经过了几轮治疗还是未能逃脱癌症的魔爪，于2011年5月9日去世，当时离他的4岁生日还有3天。斯威夫特根据汤姆
逊的博文创作了歌曲《Ronan》并将该歌曲的版税全部捐给癌症慈善机构，而汤姆逊也决定做更多的事情继续为罗南奋斗。
在罗南确诊患有癌症后，他的妈妈玛雅·汤姆逊(Maya Thompson)开始写博客。
罗南·汤姆逊
在现实中，罗南·汤姆逊(Ronan Thompson)是一个淘气的3岁小男孩，他出生在美国菲尼克斯城，有一头红棕色的头发，长着一双又大又迷人的蓝眼睛。2010年，罗南刚过完3岁生 日，几个月后被诊断出患有神经母细胞瘤，这通常是致命的儿童癌症类型。2011年5月9日，罗南离开了人世，这一天离他的4岁生日还有3天。
妈妈玛雅·汤姆逊在罗南确诊后不久开始写博客，以让亲朋好友了解罗南的病情，而斯威夫特女士也是从玛雅的博客中得知了罗南的情况。汤姆逊女士把博客命名为“英雄罗南”（http:///），虽然她没有在博客中直接表达出对儿子病情的担忧，但读者仍能从她每次更新的博客中明显感觉到她的极度悲伤。
“深入了解几周后，我记得当时写下了这样的话：我认为(英雄罗南)博客充斥着黑暗、不祥及惊慌，因为癌症本来就是一件让人害怕的事情。”在采访中，斯威夫 特女士说道，“我当时不想去粉饰这个博客，我觉得现在治疗儿童癌症没有取得进展的很大一部分原因是每个人都想隐藏它，就像用可爱的蝴蝶结装点光头的小孩 子。事实上儿童癌症是一件让人难过的事情，各种数据表明儿童癌症的现状确实很糟糕。”
汤姆逊女士也写了这方面的内容。癌症是造成15岁以下儿童死亡的第二大杀手，其死亡人数仅次于意外事故，然而对儿科癌症研究的拨款只占国家癌症研究基金的 3%到4%。虽然儿科癌症较为罕见，但是预计今年美国有12060名14岁以下(包括14岁)的儿童罹患癌症，儿科癌症的存活率为80%左右。
在美国，每年约有650到700名儿童被诊断出患有神经母细胞瘤，这是一种原发于肾上腺、颈部、胸部、腹部或者骨盆的实体瘤。神经母细胞瘤是婴幼儿最常见 的癌症，在儿童癌症死亡案例中约占15%。罗南的照片与这些冷酷数据形成对比：他与两个哥哥利亚姆(Liam)及奎恩(Quinn)在海滩上玩耍，与父母 欢笑，瞪大眼睛注视着相机。
罗南接受了几个疗程的化疗、手术以及放疗并辗转于全美各家医院，父母竭尽全力寻找能够救治罗南的医生。很快，包括斯威夫特女士在内的许多素不相识的人开始关注罗南的病情，其博客点击量超过六百多万次。
罗南生前的最后几天是在菲尼克斯城的一家儿科临终关怀医院度过的，父母和两个哥哥陪伴在他的左右。罗南走后，汤姆逊继续在博客上发布催人泪下的帖子，其最 后演变为写给罗南的公开信。她写到开始厌恶鲜花，因为其代表的含义让她痛恨。她给罗南写的最后一句话：“我们离开这里吧。”汤姆逊回想起罗南最喜欢的节日 ——万圣节，想起他沿着过道奔跑的样子以及他在地板上玩玩具车的场景。
11月份汤姆逊接到了斯威夫特女士经纪人的来电，邀请汤姆逊到菲利克斯城的一场演唱会和斯威夫特会面。“斯威夫特女士告诉我，一年多来她一直阅读我的博文 而且她的父母也关注我的博客，他们都感到很震惊并且深受感动，“汤姆逊女士说，”我记得当时自己哭了，斯威夫特女士也哭了。”
在抗癌慈善电视节目播出的前一周，汤姆逊女士接到斯威夫特打来的电话，斯威夫特说自己为罗南写了一首歌，因为歌词主要来自汤姆逊的博客所以就把作词人署为汤姆逊;歌曲的收入全数捐给癌症慈善机构，同时斯威夫特希望可以在演出中展示罗南的照片。和美国的其他观众一样，汤姆逊女士跟丈夫伍迪、两个儿子还有朋友一起收看了抗癌慈善电视节目。汤姆逊对斯威夫特说，“她脸上的表情太有感染力了，我根本就没有注意到她唱出的歌词。我能看出她的哀伤，大家都哭了而且说这是他们听过的最美妙的歌声。”
汤姆逊再次听这首歌时惊讶地发现很多歌词都出于自己的笔下。汤姆逊女士说，“我非常感动，斯威夫特女士居然了解罗南生活中重要且私密的小细节、去世还有我们的经历。”
这首歌很快就在 iTunes 歌曲排行榜中上升至榜首，而且一直都排在榜单前十位，下载次数超过32.7万次。斯威夫特女士把收入的版税全都捐给了癌症慈善机构;汤姆逊女士的收入份额捐给了罗南·汤姆逊基金会，她还打算用这笔资金成立一个神经母细胞瘤研究及治疗中心。
玛雅·汤姆逊说：“我希望为有类似经历的家庭和孩子们成立一个团体。我向罗南承诺过会继续为他奋斗，即使他离开了我也要坚持下去。”
