Adjusting to words that will echo for an eternity

He tried to keep a positive outlook.

“I thought it was something that they could just take out and it would be over, but that’s not what ended up happening,” Goldberg said.

His mother was his safe haven. He looked to her for answers.

“So much was happening so fast …. the only thing I could think was that I needed to get Jett to the hospital and get the brain tumor out of him,” Huft said. “I just wanted it gone.”

Jett went from school halls and Tylenol to being confined to a hospital bed and feeding tubes. The doctors said he had to have two surgeries as soon as possible.

“They said he’d had [the tumor] for most of his life — the symptoms he was showing — was because it was a slow-growing tumor and the spinal fluid was just filling in his head,” Huft said. “It got to the point where it was too much.”

As soon as the news broke, friends became family — visiting Goldberg, watching after his brothers and being there for him and his family. Strangers in the community became friends.

While the gestures were nice, Huft only wanted one thing. She wanted her son to be healthy.

“When we first found out, a lot of his friends came down to hang out with him. We were trying to keep it as positive as possible… I was never afraid something terrible was happening,” Huft said. “I just wanted the brain tumor gone, so he could have his normal life back.”

However, nothing was normal about the hospital monitors attached to him. He was still not home.