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OPPrairie.com news
the orland park prairie | May 9, 2019 | 7
Snapshots of Adrian: A mother remembers her son, finds support in community
Bill Jones, Editor
When Aggie Boruc lost her
11-year-old son, Adrian, last
month to complications from a
rare genetic disorder called Alagille
syndrome, she suddenly felt
alone.
The single mother also lost
her daughter Nicole to the illness,
which can wreak havoc on
the heart and liver in a developing
child, in 2002. And her other
daughter, Natalia, is now grown,
healthy and out of Aggie’s Orland
Park home. So, she had reason
to feel alone.
“It was always me and Adrian,
me and Adrian,” Aggie said of
the last few years. “That was my
man.”
On April 19, her man was
gone, and she was alone.
But the red ribbons that wrap
nearly every tree, light pole and
street sign throughout the Brook
Hills subdivision tell another
story. They were placed in honor
of Adrian — red was his favorite
color — and in a show of support
for Aggie. A GoFundMe that
helped Aggie remain at her son’s
bedside for the last few months
has raised more than $35,000 as
of press time. Students at Century
Jr. High School decorated
Adrian’s locker, created memory
hearts and held a fundraiser for
the family.
It has all reminded a grieving
mother she is far from alone.
“It wasn’t just me and Adrian,”
Aggie said. “There’s so many
people that love him and help
me and support me. It’s a tremendous
amount of phone calls,
text messages, cards. I look and
see there are flowers every day
being delivered. It just means so
much to me.”
Denise Manning — who has
run the GoFundMe and has two
girls who were close with Adrian
— said the loss of Adrian has
been “rocking the community,”
but the neighborhood rallying
around the family has been imperative.
“I’m glad she feels that,” Manning
said of the support. “I heard
her say before about being alone.
I knew it wasn’t true, but sometimes
it’s your perception that’s
more important than reality. And
her perception was that she was.”
Manning said the idea for the
ribbons around town came from
a woman Aggie does not even
know.
“She just had an idea,” Manning
said. “It’s tremendous.”
Aggie also finds some strength
in sharing stories about the type
of child Adrian was.
“He was a sweetheart,” she
said. “He was the kind of kid
who would get up in the morning
and weekends and make me
a coffee. … He always cared
more about others than himself.”
He also remained positive, often
smiling in his photos from
the hospital, despite all he had
been through.
“Even the surgeon came to
the funeral, and the surgeon
says, ‘We’ve never seen a kid
have four valve replacements,
a brain bleed, kidney shutdown,
liver shutdown, and still fighting
and recovering and being
able to walk and talk,’” Aggie
recalled. “He wakes up after
extubation, thumbs up, and the
first thing he asked is, ‘Can I
have a hot tea with two sugars?’
And they asked, ‘What kind of
kid does this?’ Then he says,
‘Where’s my mommy? I love
you mommy. I’m good.’”
But Aggie admitted that while
Adrian often maintained a positive
face for his peers, they talked
privately about how tough
things were at times.
“I would say, ‘You don’t need
to smile,’” Aggie recalled of
Adrian putting on a brave face.
“The last picture I have of him,
when he was intubated — with
the tube, smiling. He was always
happy. He never complained.
The only thing he was complaining
was he wanted to be taller.
He wanted to play soccer. That
was a thing he couldn’t do.”
Aggie said she had a “mother’s
instinct” around the time
Adrian was born that he suffered
from the same syndrome as his
late sister, and her premonition
proved correct. It’s something
Adrian Boruc, who died April 19 at age 11, is pictured on a trip he
took last October to Mexico. Bill Jones/22nd Century Media
that weighed on Adrian as he
got older, as he would question
the point of things such as math
homework with ever-present
worry of whether he might meet
the same fate as a sister he never
met. He also struggled with being
smaller than many of the
children in his class, sometimes
jaundiced and occasionally having
to educate others who criticized
his size.
“He was maybe 7 years old on
the playground when he stood
up for himself,” Aggie remembered.
“He opened up his [shirt]
and was like, ‘I may be small,
but my chest has been cracked
four times open. This is why I’m
small.’”
Despite the smile and toughness,
he could be self-conscious.
When he was in the hospital, he
refrained from using his headset
while playing video games
with friends, because he did not
want them to hear how scratchy
his voice had gotten, Aggie said.
And until his final two days,
when he made a list of friends
he wanted to see, he shunned the
idea of having visitors, because
he did not want fellow students
to see him weak in the hospital
bed.
He also struggled with not
having a father in the picture, but
found family in neighbors who
readily invited him in for dinner.
“He was a neighborhood kid,
just house to house,” Aggie said.
“I would come home, and I’d
have to call from one neighbor to
the next to find out which house
he was at.”
Manning confirmed plenty of
times when her doorbell rang,
Adrian would be standing there,
smiling. She would ask if Aggie
knew he was there. He would
nod.
“She hardly ever did,” Manning
said with a laugh, noting
Adrian was always around the
neighborhood, “looking for adventure.”
Manning said many of her
family’s photos feature her two
daughters and Adrian together.
And for one Father’s Day, Aggie
said Adrian did not want people
to know about his situation
when they were making cards at
school, so he made one for Denise’s
husband, Craig.
“He was such a sweet kid,”
Denise Manning said. “We had a
lot of fun together. He was like
my son. … We miss him a lot.”
But as much as he knew he
was missing something at home,
Adrian was not looking for anyone
to encroach on his time with
mom. When Aggie tried dating,
Adrian once slammed the door
on a man who came to the house,
telling his mother she didn’t
need a boyfriend. He would sit at
the table watching visitors closely.
He once even declined an offer
of a glass of water for one of
them, Aggie said.
“He was the main squeeze,
and he liked it that way,” Manning
said of Adrian.
Aggie said if people remember
anything about Adrian, she
hopes it is the “charming personality”
he had in the face of his
struggles.
“We live right now in a world
that everyone’s complaining
about everything,” she said.
“And here’s a child who’s critically
sick, who’s going to surgery
after surgery, and he’s so
strong.
“He was a friend with everyone;
that’s why people love him.
He was just an open, loving person
to everyone, especially to
me.”