A sweet 6-year-old boy named Leland Shoemake penned a heartbreaking surprise note for his mom and dad to find before his death from a rare amoebic infection. According to a Facebook post written by his parents, Tim and Amber Shoemake, on Monday, Sept. 28, they found the handwritten note while picking out his burial clothes.
“Still with you,” the note read on lined paper in red marker, “Thank you mom and dad.”
"We have no idea when he wrote it but you can tell he was always a special child," Amber shared on her Facebook page, revealing Leland died after contracting Balamuthia mandrillaris, which can cause serious infection in the brain and spinal cord. The amoeba is naturally found in the environment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Posted by Prayers for Leland on Saturday, September 19, 2015
“I was over protective of Leland and tried my best to keep him safe. The one thing he loved most was playing in the dirt. I never imagined that would be the thing that would take him from me. He was my world. He made me a mother. We struggled so hard to have him. He was a preemie baby but came out screaming and healthy. He was smart from day one. He knew his abc's, numbers, colors, shapes and 20 sight words by the time he was a year old. He was our little nerd and we loved that about him,” Amber wrote in the post. “He loved school and loved to learn. He loved the history channel, the weather channel, documentaries and anything about history. He loved ships like the titanic and learning about things like WWII. He was perfect.”
