It’s Okay to Be Mad… Especially When Everything Changes Overnight
At Two in the Morning, Everything Changed
At two o’clock in the morning on Thanksgiving, everything changed.
For Jordan Setzer, a week of on-and-off fevers turned into words no parent is ever prepared to hear—her son had cancer. Her six-year-old son, Liam, was diagnosed with a stage four Wilms tumor.
“It’s surreal,” she says. “You walk through your life thinking… that’s not going to happen to me.”
In an instant, life became hospital visits, uncertainty and a loss of control that’s impossible to describe unless you’ve lived it.
“It wasn’t so much the not knowing,” Jordan explains. “It was having to give everything over to doctors, science and medicine and just say… ‘please fix this’.”
The Bag She wasn’t Ready to Open
Then came something small, practical and thoughtful.
A Roc Solid Ready Bag—designed to support families during unexpected hospital stays.
But Jordan’s reaction wasn’t gratitude at first.
“The specialist brought in the Ready Bag and said, ‘You’re going to need this.’ And I was mad,” Jordan recalls. “I was mad that I needed it. I wasn’t ready.”
So the Ready Bag sat on the floor.
Unopened, unused and avoided, because opening it meant accepting a reality she wasn’t ready to face.
The Moment there was no Time to Decide
But pediatric cancer doesn’t wait for readiness.
“When they told us if he had a fever, he’d have to stay overnight, I didn’t have time to think,” she says. “I just grabbed Liam, threw a couple things in the Ready Bag, and went.”
And in that moment, something shifted.
The Bag was Ready when She Wasn’t
“I didn’t have to think about anything else,” Jordan says. “Did I grab shampoo? Toothpaste? All those things. It was just… ready.”
What once felt like a symbol of everything going wrong became something else entirely.
It became support, relief and steadiness in a moment that had none.
“That Ready Bag was there,” she says. “It had me. It had my back.”
Because when everything feels out of control, even one small thing that is taken care of can make all the difference.
Why the Smallest Things Matter the Most
At Roc Solid Foundation, we know a Ready Bag isn’t just a backpack.
Ready Bags are practical support for families navigating a childhood cancer diagnosis.
They are relief during long and unexpected hospital stays.
They are one less thing to worry about in a moment filled with unknowns.
Most of all, a Ready Bag is a way to show up for families when they need it most.
Watch Liam’s family story on our YouTube here.
If you are interested in making a donation to help provide Roc Solid Ready Bags and backyard play structures to families like Liam’s click here.
To learn about sponsorship opportunities for Ready Bag Packing Parties and play projects, go to our website to learn more.
If you or a family you know is fighting pediatric cancer and interested in receiving a Roc Solid Ready Bag or play structure, let us know by clicking here.
