On December 15, 2021, fifteen year old Gabriel Cabrera-Schram’s two-year long journey with DSRCT cancer came to an end. 

The fifteen year old Loy Norrix freshman was known to be a kind presence, with a light-hearted sense of humor and a knack for drawing. 

“He was very shy and funny and took a lot of serious things into a funnier matter because he always wanted to see the positive once he got cancer,” freshman Sabrina Cabrera-Schram, Gabriel’s sister, continued. 

“He enjoyed drawing a lot and playing soccer. I think he mostly enjoyed drawing because he drew on almost every single piece of homework he had, and it just helped him not find things so stressful.”

Sabrina and Gabriel were born less than 24 hours apart, with Gabriel’s birthday being October 4th, 2006, and Sabrina’s a day later. The two got along well and were able to make many memories together, which Sabrina reflects on fondly. 

Sabrina said, “We did have a brother and sister, love and hate relationship, but we grew up together so we did everything together. He was my number one supporter and my best friend, and we would always, like, pull pranks on our dads together.”

The freshman remembers her brother’s and her first day going into high school as a particularly important bonding moment. 

“The first day we came to Loy Norrix, he was terrified and had no idea where he was going, and I, of course, searched the entire map the night before so I knew exactly where everything was.” Sabrina continued, “We were at school fifteen minutes early, and so I walked into his class and he got a little bit nervous and wanted to stand with me for a bit because there were just so many people. He was still going through chemo, so he didn’t really have that much hair, so he was very scared about being bullied.”

Sabrina explained the morning in more detail. “So I stood with him for a few minutes and I was talking to him about how nobody’s going to make fun of someone with cancer, and that he’s safe and that I’m right around the room if he needs me, and that he can call my parents any time he needs to. It was just like, that felt like a bonding moment, where I felt like his bigger sister because he was one day older than me, so he was like my big brother technically. It felt like I was bonding with him a lot that day. It kind of just felt like I was there for him and that he was safe,” said Sabrina.

Once Gabriel got adjusted to his new classes, he had a reputation for treating those around him with unconditional kindness and respect. 

Teacher Valerie Long had Gabriel as a student in her Environmental Science course during the first trimester. 

“Gabriel was very quiet, kind of kept to himself. He would work with groups when we had group projects and things like that, and he was always nice to the group members and everybody seemed to get along with him. He was a very unassuming young man,” Long said. 

Long described Gabriel’s presence in the class as, “low-key,” as he was still shy in nature.

“He was very quiet and he always was polite and treated me kindly, and we talked about a lot of things. He was always conscientious about his work and he didn’t want a lot of fuss. I just asked him how he was feeling and things like that, and I just wanted him to know that I was there to support him and answer any questions,” Long said. 

“He seemed to be a kind soul. He had a lot of things going on, but you would never know. If you didn’t know what he was going through, you wouldn’t be able to tell. He was very private, but he was never mean. He didn’t seem to have an angry bone or anything,” said Long. 

In the spirit and memory of Gabriel´s caring nature, his family has requested that, in lieu of flowers or monetary gifts, anyone who would like to express their support should donate to the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fund for Bronson Hospital, a place Garbiel spent a lot of time at through his journey. 

Sabrina Cabrera-Schram said, ¨They [The donations] are going to help pay for equipment and for them to be able to run tests in general, so it’s going to really help them find a cure to his [type of] cancer.¨