Marcia Barnes • Clay County Progress Rhet Lovingood and his mother Caitlin on Thursday, March 19 at Hayesville Primary School where Rhet is a kindergarten student.
Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
Rhet Lovingood is a little boy with a lot of hard work ahead. He is six years old and a kindergarten student at Hayesville Primary School. In April 2024, when Rhet was diagnosed with leukemia, he had the big jobs of getting well, growing up so he could start school in two years and doing his chores at the Lovingood home.
Rhet had been an otherwise perfect and normal four-year-old boy, but when something changed in his skin color, that alarmed his mother to find an answer. That April, a medical diagnosis revealed something the family never expected.
Caitlin Lovingood said that she had started to notice Rhet was more pale than normal. Of course, she knew that they did have tough kids and what some would say wild kids that were always playing and up to something. His little kid bruises were darker, more intense and more of them.
“On Easter, he complained of leg pain a couple of times though Rhet continued to be his normal self and I told him, 'You're good, it's just growing pains.'”
Caitlin said that a couple days later all three symptoms were running through her head and by the following Thursday she called the doctor's office and asked them to do some blood work. Rhet's mother recalls with clarity the alarming string of phone calls and messages that followed. At 8:07 p.m. on April 6, Caitlin received a call from the doctor who said she had received the blood work and it was not good.
“'I need you to get to Gainesville Emergency Room ASAP,' she said. The doctor's call was on speaker so Rhet's dad Derrick and I could both hear. We were all eating supper, Derrick, an older son Grady, Rowen who is Rhet's twin sister and Rhet. Derrick and I stepped outside. For the first time in my life I was scared,” Caitlin said.
That evening marked the beginning of many scheduled hospital visits beyond the mountains and Hayesville. While Derrick remained at home with the kids, Caitlin called a friend to ride with her and Rhet to the Gainesville hospital. Within five minutes of arrival they were checked in, vitals done and a doctor standing there waiting on them.
“We were told they were transporting my boy to the Children's Hospital Of Atlanta Scottish Rite as soon as possible. They were sending my son to doctors who knew exactly what to do,” Caitlin said. “Sunday morning around 7 a.m., Rhet and I were on an ambulance ride to the hospital with him smiling from ear to ear and eating a big sausage biscuit.”
The blood work was repeated before the doctor came into the room and confirming the diagnosis. Rhet and his mother heard what it was and what would happen next. Two family friends were with them. Rhet was transferred to a hospital room in less than an hour and his dad had arrived.
Caitlin said that she had a moment to step outside. She's sure her anger and fear shook the parking deck before sitting on the curb, before she was on her knees to talk with the man upstairs and ask why.
“Actually leaving that parking deck, I felt totally different. I felt positive, I didn’t feel scared. I went back to that room knowing I had a job to do and everything was going to be OK.”
When she went back to the room she wanted to make sure her son knew what was going on and realized four-year-old Rhet understood.
“Mom, I am sick, I have bad blood, but I am going to be OK, I am in Jesus's hands,” Rhet told her.
“From that moment on, I knew my boy knew exactly what was going on. He understood from listening to the doctors, nurses, questions being asked and answered from the man upstairs,” Caitlin said. “That was the moment when I began saying 'God moves mountains.'”
That was the day when a team of doctors came in with a 90 percent positive outcome and had a plan that started the next day, a Monday. On Tuesday, Rhet had surgery for his port to be placed, a bone marrow aspiration and a spinal tap. Then, in the evening Rhet had his first chemotherapy treatment, days later he had his second treatment with no side effects before being released to go home.
Caitlin said that Rhet was a superstar. He has never complained. Since Rhet's discharge from the hospital they have traveled back and forth, staying the night before treatment day, and he's been feeling good and able to make the ride home from the towering 19-story facility with a roof-top helicopter landing pad. The hospital is part of a North Druid Hills campus of medical helps.
It is also a two and a half to three hour drive from the mountains, evolving sometimes to a four-hour trip when road traffic snarls. Then, finding parking, there is a shuttle ride to the hospital's entrance before beginning the scheduled treatment. The Ronald McDonald House is a few steps away and also a refuge for the driver and young Rhet.
Maybe, that is why Rhet distinguished his mom by calling Caitlin 'his wing man,' the pilot who flies just outside and behind the right wing of the leading aircraft in a flight formation in order to provide protective support.
Every member of the family is supportive. Derrick is a line man for Blue Ridge Mountain EMC and takes over care of the children when Caitlin drives Rhet to Atlanta for a treatment, or when Rhet's temperature rises to 100.5 F. Rhet's brother Grady helps in being a big brother and twin sister Rowen helps Rhet with school work.
There is a ready team of family, friends, doctors, nurses and a hospital to make each step of the journey easier. The Ronald McDonald House in Atlanta offers Rhet and his family the comfort of a safe place to spend nights, a place where Rhet can make his own breakfast before trekking off to see Doctor B.
When Rhet returns to Hayesville, kindergarten classmates and Miss Kyla are waiting on him. He likes Hayesville Primary School. He loves his teacher and thinks that breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria are great. When school is out, there's homework with Rowen, his chores, driving the go-cart, fishing and hunting with his dad. Rhet has his own fishing pole and a Cricket 22.
He wants to be a line-man when he's older, like his dad and his uncle. He's not waiting to become a teenager to work and make some money. Rhet said that he's ready now because he wants to buy a vending machine to make more money, buy Pokemon cards and then take his family to a trampoline park.
Every scene in the Lovingood's story fills with the strength and rare beauty of love at work. Caitlin and Derrick have held hands with their children while family and friends, doctors and hospitals and Ronald McDonald help them in carrying on as Rhet finishes his big job of getting well.