Tyler Anthony Kowalczyk was born on June 22nd, 2002. He was born to young adults named Walter Kowalczyk Jr. and Ashley Hale. He was born at Holmes Regional Medical Center weighing about 8lbs. 12oz. He was one of the most beautiful babies his father has ever laid his eyes on. As he grew, he learned how to do things from his family. He had a lot of family, aunts, uncles, Grandparents and great grandparents, even a sister who was only 2 months younger than him named Alexia.

      

      Tyler loved bugs, and was a typical boy when it came to so many things. He was a really awesome kid with a kind heart, and it was easy to see at a very early age that Tyler was going to be a very sweet little boy.  As a toddler, Tyler loved Tellitubbies and Scooby Doo. As he grew, so did his taste in tv shows, moving on to sponge bob and eventually shows like Ben 10, and Pokemon. He loved video games! I remember one time he was playing Legend of Zelda, a puzzle solving type game, and before I could even try to figure out what the game wanted you to do, Tyler was already in action, splitting into 4 links, and hitting all 4 statue's in the room at the same time, opening a secret tunnel and playing a winning sound so all could hear his accomplishment. I look over at Tyler and ask him, how did you know to do that? He just smiled. It was obvious that Tyler had a knack for problem solving. 

   

        As Tyler grew, he was very active. He would go on long trips with his JaJa and his uncle Steve. They started just exploring local woodland areas, and ended up taking 10 mile bike rides to unknown parts of the city to explore and discover. He loved his Uncle Steve with a intensity not understood by adults. That kind of loyalty and devotion to anything or anyone is usually lost with maturity, but Tyler knew this love and embraced it. Tyler and his uncle Steve were best friends forever, they would play for hours and hours. Tyler was naturally gifted at anything he tried, just like his father, he had all the natural abilities I had, but none of my flaws. His artwork and his school work show how his active his brain was and how capable he was at accomplishing anything. 

   

      Tyler got to travel some, going all the way to Ohio with his mother to live for about 6 months, he rode a airplane at only 5 years old! Tyler was in cub scouts with his pack 337. During his short time with the scouts, it was obvious that my little boy was becoming a man. He was scaling walls, doing obstacle courses, flying across a field on a zip line, and using air powered tubes to shoot targets or just glow sticks high in the air while learning about flares. He did a 3 day campout in Wickham park where we got to play, do activities, shoot a bow and arrow, and watch, "The Mummy" by Abbot and Castello on a big screen with about 500 people. He wrote a card to a soldier in Iraq and Tyler and I made over 250 deviled eggs for the pack's Christmas party. 

   

      Tyler was a bright light, and anyone who was lucky enough to meet him knew what kind of a special little boy he was. For Christmas, I seen that Tyler was old enough to learn the true meaning of Christmas. I took him to Calvary Chapel about 2 weeks before he died, and he learned about Jesus and the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Two days later, Tyler emptied out his change jar where we kept the allowance that his step mom, Stacy would give him every week for doing chores. He gathered just enough money to go with me to the dollar tree and buy a present for everyone that he loved. He then helped me wrap all of the presents for his family, learning that the best part of Christmas wasn't the massive amount of toys and games he would recieve, but rather the look on people's faces, and the gratitude they show when they recieve a thoughtful present from you. Lessons that i am so glad he was able to learn before he left this world.

     

     Tyler's life was cut short by a combination of a very scary form of medication, and his Doctor not running the appropriate tests while on this medicine, or while going on and off of it. Ritalin is a very dangerous substance simular to cocaine and methamphetamine. Tyler was 23 pills into the new medicine when he died. Tyler went to sleep Christmas night, 2010 for the last time. He did not awake with us the next morning, he went to heaven that night. We will never understand why Tyler left so fast and why we didn't have a chance to save him. Also, we will never stop fighting for him and will make sure that what happened to him stops happening to our children. 

 

    Tyler Anthony Kowalczyk should NOT have died when he did and for his beautiful life being cut so short, there HAS to be retribution and something has to change with the way things are going in this country. Thank you for reading about Tyler's life and death, and please just tell me if there is anything I can do to help other young Tyler's out there, I will do whatever it takes to spread the word of these killer medications and to make sure Tyler's death can be a catalyst for a change. God doesnt want his children on mind-altering killer medication, period!