PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Around the home of Brian and Tamara Ekis, you’ll see Grace Ekis’s favorite purse on display, photos on the wall, and reflections of Grace everywhere.
She’s Brian’s and Tamara’s vivacious daughter.
“It’s almost like she knew what time people were coming home from work because she would be out there dancing up and down the stairs, in the driveway, and people would people would slow down, as they came past the house,” said Tamara. She continues to describe her child as ‘wise beyond her years’.
However, she didn’t get many years, because Grace passed away at just 5 years old from DIPG. It’s a fatal brain cancer with no cure. It had spread throughout her brain and doctors call DIPG the “rarest and deadliest” of brain cancers.
Tamara said the diagnosis all started with one symptom.
“She said she was wobbly, and she had fallen a couple of times. You know, we knew that it was time to take her to be seen,” said Tamara.
In 2007, they moved quickly with Grace at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, to uncover the deadly diagnosis.