It’s doesn’t matter what’s under the Christmas tree.
The most precious gift arrived in May.
More than two years ago, I wrote about Tyler Chamberlin, who was deathly ill with cancer. It was agonizing to see a young man so sick.
Then the head chef at Shell Creek Restaurant in Edmonds, he’d always been healthy, a basketball star at Meadowdale High School. He studied at Edmonds Community College’s Culinary Arts School.
Lumps along his collarbone prompted him to see a doctor.
It was bad news.
Before he was treated for testicular cancer, Chamberlin did something very smart. He saved what he called his “little soldiers.”
“Tyler did have sperm frozen before the removal of his testicle,” said his girlfriend, Megan Walla. “He does want children someday, so this helps his mind be at ease at least about part of this.”
Walla, who sells real estate, had sold a house to an oncologist at the University of Washington. That wonderful doctor took over Chamberlin’s care, even though the young man had no medical insurance.
Chamberlin had eight or 10 golf-ball-sized lumps in a row, from neck to groin, including a lemon-sized tumor next to his liver. Surgeries and treatments followed.
A year after his last chemotherapy, it was Walla who felt queasy.
Hmmmm. No way.
She took a home test and discovered she was pregnant.
And they conceived the old-fashioned way.
“I wasn’t supposed to be able to have kids,” Chamberlin, 26, said. “They said if it happens, it’s a miracle.”
Their joy, Tyven Robert, was born May 24.
He’s healthy, darling and happy.
Chamberlin works at 35th Street Bistro in the Fremont area of Seattle. The couple, who live in Edmonds, exchanged commitment rings.
And the little soldiers?
They will never march. Chamberlin let them go because it cost money every year for the deep freeze, he said.
No sense paying for insurance you’ll never need.
His mother, Michelle Sokoloski, welcomed her third grandchild.
“My son is the best father anyone could imagine,” Sokoloski said. “Tyven, our miracle baby, is cherished by the entire family.”
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
- You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing newstips@heraldnet.com or by calling 425-339-3428.
- If you have an opinion you wish to share for publication, send a letter to the editor to letters@heraldnet.com or by regular mail to The Daily Herald, Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
- More contact information is here.
