Courage, love and community: terminal cancer doesn’t stop Owen Pitts from reaching his dreams

MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. – “There’s a lot of smiles,” Rachel Pitts said. “And I hope that’s the part that the kids remember.”

Pictures are a time capsule, moments in history that act as the key to unlocking memories.

“And then we got to go, the doctor said we could go on a trip, so we took an RV trip to St. Louis,” Rachel said.

The images tell the stories of her son, Owen Pitts, who like a lot of young guys loves basketball, his Kansas City Chiefs, and his family of six.

But these memories are bittersweet.

“He called me, and he said, ‘are you and Jason at home?’ and he didn’t have to say anything else… I can’t believe this is happening to our child kind of thing.”

Because when Owen was five years old, his parents received a devastating call: a leukemia diagnosis.

“I’m just glad I’m still alive, and I’m glad I don’t have to do any more cancer, or anything like that,” Owen said.

Years of treatment led to remission, just for the cancer to come back this September aggressively with tumors across Owen’s brain.

This time, the cancer was terminal.

“What he’s gone through once and now twice, it’s unimaginable,” Owen’s brother Kael Pitts said. “I mean I, I could never… I could never go through with that. He’s the strongest person I know, maybe second by my mom.”

“I’m privileged to call him my son and the time we, you know, 20 to almost 21 years we go to be with him,” Rachel said.

But just like the empty pages of a scrapbook, Owen’s story isn’t finished.

A lifelong dream was about to be realized.

“I’m sure I’ll do great by the time I get there,” Owen said.

Owen got to make his first varsity start for the Medical Lake Cardinals basketball team, and with the crowd behind him, he scored his first career points.

But then the game paused for Owen to earn an honorary diploma from Medical Lake on this special night: cap, gown, cake and all.

“That was a once-in-a-lifetime feeling, huh?” “Uh, huh.” “Yeah!” Rachel and Owen said.

“They were doting on him, it was awesome,” Owen’s father Jason Pitts said. “When he was graduating with his cap and gown, he just kept scanning the audience like, ‘is this happening to me?’”

“‘Is this real?’ yeah. The smile and the look in his eye, I’ll never forget that,” Rachel said.

“He’s talked about both of those things for a long, long time,” Jason said.

The outpouring of support to make a night like this happen came from the fabric of what this small town is all about.

“It’s incredible,” Medical Lake’s head boys basketball coach Brett Ward said. “I was fighting back tears the entire time, just trying not to cry. Seeing the community come together and seeing him get that moment that he deserved meant a lot to everybody in here, myself included.”

“It’s an irreplaceable small-town, heartfelt community,” Rachel said. “You can’t replace that love and support.”

Owen’s family cherishes the time they have left with their son, and after what happened on a cold winter night at Medical Lake High School, the time capsule the Pitts have created will tell Owen’s story of courage, a life full of love, and a dream finally realized.

“Mom calls me a hero and so brave. I’m just a kid, doing the best I can, with the life I’ve been given,” Rachel said, reading a note she wrote the day Owen ended his first round of chemotherapy years ago.

Owen got to cross one more dream off the list this weekend, going to a Kansas City Chiefs game with his parents, continuing to make memories that will last a lifetime.