Liam (17 years old) will not live long, as he is writing his legacy in a book

“I have done everything I can and now I will soon die,” Liam Hunderdos wrote in a letter to his publisher. Living together, getting married and having children is no longer an option for him. “Everything I can use to build a legacy is being taken away. The only thing I can do is write a book.” This book will be published soon.

Spinal cord tumor

He was less than a year old when a tumor was discovered in his spinal cord. He had undergone two surgeries, and aside from an incomplete spinal cord injury, he was doing well. There was no idea that he would die at such a young age. “I never thought something could happen to me that would make things worse again.”

Liam also doesn't want to be different from others. For example, he mentions a time when he went to the zoo with his aunt and was in a wheelchair. “Then I met a boy of the same age, who said: 'Oh, that's sad, he's in a wheelchair.' Then I immediately got out of that wheelchair, because I wanted to be seen as an equal.”

That equality was important to him. With every operation he underwent, he was fully focused on getting better. Walking was especially important to him. “It felt like a kind of victory. For a long time I thought being in a wheelchair was a sign of weakness, and I felt like giving up.”

Two years ago I couldn't get better anymore. He pushed his body to the limits because he wanted to walk so badly. But he has reached his maximum capacity. “Realizing that 'my life is ending too soon' is something you grow a little bit into. This is a big thing, of course. It's hard for you to explain.”

A few months ago, he was shown his 2006 medical records by his parents, who had long felt powerless over Liam's situation. “When I read that, I thought this person wouldn't live long,” he says. “I think my parents suppressed it in some way to make it easier to deal with.”

life cycle

Liam, who now resides in the Netherlands' only youth foster home in Leiden, has always been fascinated by writing, and at one point thought: “I want to write about what I went through.” So he did. During the writing process, he also learned that he had been deeply involved in the feelings and stories of his loved ones over the years. Writing also allowed him to process those situations better. “Things I had already forgotten about have come to light, and I've been able to turn them into something beautiful. It brings me a lot of comfort.”

What also comforts him is that by reading the book, his loved ones can feel that Liam is still there.

Liam says a book has a certain life cycle. He divided it into themes to which the mythological stories are connected. There are five parts in total, consisting of a short piece with symbolic meaning, a mythological story, and a personal story. “I think we can learn a lot from those stories, including some core values.”

He hopes that people will be amazed by the book, and that people will find hope and comfort in the experiences they have already had. “We already have everything to maintain hope. We just have to take care to look into the matter in detail.”

When it comes to how sober Liam talks about his situation, he says that “you can never cry all day.” “I think everyone is always trying to make something. It's important to realize that, that there are always possibilities to find a way to something.”

Liam's book Oración is expected to be released on April 15.