For days, Buck Long dropped hints to his mother that he was planning something big on April 30.
“He had hinted around,” recalled Andrea Mims. “He said, ‘You’ll see.’ Then on Wednesday, he said, ‘Today’s the day.’ I said, ‘What have you done?’”
Buck, a senior at Pillow Academy, raised $800 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in memory of his brother Ross, who died from complications from a tumor on that day 15 years ago. Ross was just 6 months old when he died.
Mims said she finally resorted to going to Buck’s Instagram page, where she found a note from the Memphis hospital thanking Buck for the donation.
“Today is the day that I lost my brother Ross,” Buck said in the posting.
“I was dumbfounded. My child did this on his own. He took it upon himself, and he did it,” Mims said.
Ross suffered with health issues from the start of his brief life.
When he was just 12 days old, Mims said, he was taken to St. Jude’s, where he was diagnosed with a hemangioma tumor on his liver, a benign growth that normally disappears over time.
In Ross’ case, though, the tumor “just grew and grew and grew” and eventually attached itself to most of his internal organs, Mims said.
Mims and her husband at the time, Rhyine Long, both tried to be brave in light of the overwhelming situation.
Throughout much of Ross’ ordeal at home, Buck would get on the floor and play with his baby brother, Mims said.
“Buck was such an amazing big brother.”
When Ross experienced a high heart rate in January 1999, his parents took him for treatment to Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children in Jackson.
Three months later, in a procedure intended to block blood flow to the tumor, doctors at Batson inserted a coil in the artery that was feeding the tumor.
Although it was considered an outpatient procedure, Ross didn’t come out of sedation completely for two days.
When Mims was feeding Ross breakfast one morning in the hospital, she noticed his stomach was swollen.
“The next thing I know, there are doctors, nurses, they’re bringing in X-ray machines,” Mims said.
The built-up blood pressure in the tumor apparently knocked the coil lose, which then perforated the child’s stomach.
He died April 30, 1999.
Mims said when the couple arrived back home, Buck, then 3, was anxiously waiting.
“The first thing he asked us was, ‘Where’s Ross?’ We told him he went to live with Jesus. It was very emotional. He grasped the concept of what had happened,” Mims said.
Mims said that Ross has never been far from the family’s thoughts.
Every year for several years, the family would read letters of love to Ross at his grave in Odd Fellows Cemetery, followed by a balloon release in his memory.
“I wanted Buck to always remember him. I also wanted my other two children to know that they had a big brother,” she said, referring to son Thomas, now 13, and daughter Mary Lusco, 12.
Andrea and Rhyine later divorced. She is now the wife of Will Mims.
Buck raised the money for St. Jude’s by asking for contributions from the parents of the children he coached this year on two basketball teams at Twin Rivers Recreation Association.
“To me, that they gave him that money, they obviously see him as trustworthy,” his mother said.
Buck said he intends to double the donation using his own funds.
This week, in another interesting twist, mother and son will both be graduating.
Mims will be receiving an associate’s degree in nursing from Mississippi Delta Community College on Thursday, and Buck will receive his high school diploma from Pillow the next day.
Buck said that although he will always remember his baby brother, it was also nice to surprise his mom.
“She was shocked more than anything,” Buck said.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
