Kelly Preston is sharing a heartfelt post about her late son, Jett, who died 10 years ago at the age of 17.
Posted to her Instagram account on Friday night, Preston shared a tender snapshot of herself with husband John Travolta giving their teenage son a kiss as he lay in bed.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“To my sweet love, Jett…You are in our hearts forever,” the 56-year-old actress captioned the black-and-white throwback. “I send love to all of the beautiful autistic children and the wonderful people who love them. May we all shine and grant love and respect to children with special needs.”
Preston ended off her message with a heart emoji and hashtags for autism awareness and autism.
Preston and Travolta’s son Jett died 10 years ago this past January at the age of 16 after suffering a seizure and hitting his head on the bathtub while the family vacationed in the Bahamas, in celebration of the New Year.
According to ABC News, a nanny had to revive him with all attempts made, but he couldn’t be revived.
“They tried as hard as they could to revive Jett,” Travolta’s attorney, Michael Ossi, told ABC News at the time.
Travolta’s attorney added that Jett had “seizures in the past, but they were controlled,” but this one “couldn’t be.” Jett’s health made national news in 2002, when the family disclosed that at the age of 2, he had what doctors diagnosed as a “poorly understood condition” known as Kawasaki syndrome, a collection of symptoms that stem from swollen arteries. Researchers today believe inflammation from the syndrome can lead to convulsions and seizures.
Kawasaki syndrome — also known as KS — largely affects children under the age of 5, though it has been known to occur in older children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 9 out of 100,000 children have KS, though the incidence is higher among Japanese and Korean children, despite it occurring among any ethnicity.
Preston opened up about her son’s autism diagnosis in November 2012 during an appearance on The Doctors, going into detail about KS.
“He was autistic, he had seizures, and when he was very young, he had Kawasaki syndrome,” Preston said, adding how she and Travolta “strongly believe … there are certain contributing factors that lead to autism.”
That same year, the Jerry Maguire actress opened up about the loss of Jett so young, saying it was “unfathomable.”
“I’ve had enormous loss. Nobody should have to lose a child,” she said on The Conversation With Amanda de Cadenet. “But I’m here to say that you can get through it. You can live again. You can want to live again.”
Preston went on to add how “everybody grieves in their own way.”
“I felt at times like I was drowning. It felt like a sea of wet blankets. And then I just peeled them off, layer by layer, so that I can now say, ‘I want to live. I love life. My life is beautiful and amazing.’”
Jett would have been 27 on April 13.
Photo credit: Rogers and Cowan via Getty Images
