Every parent's worst nightmare is that their child is stricken with a terminal illness. Sadly, that is actually the situation that Bill Kohler found himself in when his son Ayden was diagnosed with the rare condition of a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

This rare form of cancer wreaks havoc on the brain stem, and patients who have it typically do not live for more than a year. Ayden's case was even more severe because he had not one but two brain tumors, leaving his family feeling powerless and devastated.

As a military medic who had just completed his tour in Iraq, Bill wanted to fight and do everything he could to get his son the best treatment available. Bill desperately tried to get his son into clinical trials, as he knew this was his best chance at beating the disease, but he was denied at every turn.

“I was a medic in the war, you know, and you fix things …And this was something I couldn’t even touch," Bill said.

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Finally, Bill had an epiphany and made a promise to himself: if he could not cure his son, he would do everything in his power to make Ayden's final days meaningful and enjoyable.

As Bill carried out his promise, Ayden had the time of his life! He met WWE stars, chatted with celebrity chef Guy Fieri on FaceTime, hunted with his dad in the woods, and even joined members of semi-professional football team the York Generals, to help them with a fundraiser.

“We looked at the day, and we looked at how we could make that day the best we could …Every day," Ayden's mother explained.

There were some days that Ayden found it difficult to walk and breathe, but he managed to push through it for months before he finally said the words his father had been dreading.

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"Dad, I gotta quit!" the exhausted boy said.

Trying not to break into tears, Bill replied, “I’ll make you a promise. If you’ve fought as much as you can and as hard as you can and you feel you fought that hard, I promise you it’s OK to quit.”

Ayden did fight as hard as he could, and he managed to make it seven months after his diagnosis before he passed away. Just before he passed, Ayden had one final request for his friends and family.

“If people gather to remember me, I want them to dance, sing, and take group pictures …If anyone asks how I want to be remembered, please say happy, funny, athletic, wise, fighter, caring, and selfless," he said.

While his family misses Ayden deeply, they are happy he got to spend his final months having fun and doing what he loved.

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