There are many moments forever etched in CJ Infantino’s memory, but one stands out above the rest. It was Sept. 5, 2020, when CJ and his wife, Ariana, sat their three kids down at the kitchen table in their California home and told them that Ariana, 35, was going to die. The couple’s youngest, only 8 at the time, turned away, his face blank as he watched his mom sitting in her chair. Meanwhile, their two older kids, 12 and 10, hugged their mom, who had 17 tumors in her brain. "I actually captured the moment we told them on camera," CJ recalls.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00I wanted to help my kids not feel like it's wrong to laugh and it's wrong to have fun even though
00:08we were in horrendous pain. I knew almost right away that I wanted to spend the rest of my life
00:15with her. Not sure why, just had that feeling. So we got married very young, 21, 22, and immediately
00:23started having kids. We said, you know, the cancer is taking over and mommy is not going
00:40to make it much longer. We're hoping to get through the holidays, but we don't know how
00:45much longer she's going to have. I think it was a week before the photo shoot, I like came to the
01:09dinner table. I was like, guys, what if we got a cut out of mommy and we just like had her kind
01:13of haunt the photo shoot and we just do all these crazy things with her during the photo shoot and
01:19they were so on board. I love the one with us running away when we like, I think my youngest
01:23was lifting up the sheet and we're just like, oh, mommy's there and like running away. And then we
01:29went to the one of the ponds and we were like trying to like lift her up and pretend like she
01:34was super heavy. And then the one that like always makes me laugh is I actually took a photo with her
01:40like we were together and it's just so goofy. I don't want any griever to be alone in their
01:55journey with grief and in healing. And I want to educate the world and I want to bring grief
02:00out of the shadows and I want to change the conversation on it.