Kassi Smith remembers Malcolm

On Oct. 30, 2019, Lewiston High School alum, Malcolm Thorson, died due to a rare form of cancer, non-rhabdo soft tissue sarcoma.

In a recent interview with Kassi Smith, Thorson’s mother, she reminisced the many moments that she remembers of her son.

“He had the [umbilical] cord wrapped around his neck,” she remembered about Thorson’s birth. “He was blue.”

She said he did not cry for about 48 hours after he was born due to the lack of oxygen.

From the first time she held Thorson, she knew there was something incredible about him. He had a great personality right from the beginning.

“He looked at me with a look that said, ‘Who are you?’, and I just knew he had a personality from the get-go,” Smith said.

Smith and Thorson were very close.

“Even at the age of 16 years old, he would come in, give me a big hug and sit on my lap,” she said. “There was just something about him.”

Thorson was diagnosed with non-rhabdo soft tissue sarcoma when he was 16. However, despite the many obstacles he faced because of his disease, Thorson had set plans for the future.

“He wanted to be a lineman and travel the world,” said Smith.

The hardest part of losing her son, she said, is that a part of her is also gone.

“I could never get it back,” she shared.

Due to medical circumstances, Smith did not see Thorson as often as she would have liked.

“It’s just the thought of it,” Smith said, “just the thought that one of my babies is gone… ”

At the time of this interview, she said that she hadn’t cried yet over the loss.

“It just hasn’t sunk in yet,” she said.

Smith was not able to be there when Thorson took his last breath.

“[His family] just told him that he didn’t need to stay here for us,” she recalled. “He was ready to go. He was tired of fighting. He’s been fighting for over two and a half years.”

Thorson’s last words were, “I just won the lottery,” according to his mother.

She added that Thorson would want to be remembered for his personality, his collection of hats, and for always being a joker.

“He was always making jokes about my age,” she reminisced. “He had an awesome personality.”

Adviser’s note: A shorter remembrance of Malcolm Thorson was published in the Dec. 18, 2019, print edition of The Bengal’s Purr. The print edition followed our guidelines on length and tone for remembrance stories. These guidelines are set to ensure fairness in coverage to any members of the LHS community who pass away. The story was expanded here online in order to share more of Kim Neri’s interview with Kassi Smith, and to share Smith’s experience. — Charity Thompson Egland