Braedon Lee is a lover.

Everyone says so.

Mrs. Rosenthal, from Humann Elementary School.

Miss Lisa, from the Turtle Room at St. Mark's Kidzone.

Tanner Rankin's mom.

They want to do nice things for the 6-year-old Lincoln boy and his mom, Heather Armstrong.

Braedon was diagnosed with leukemia last month. He has autism, too.

His mom is raising him alone. She's trying to go to nursing school, but she had to drop all but one of her classes when Braedon got sick.

She has to move out of her apartment. There's mold, and Braedon's immune system can't take that.

She and Braedon are at the Rainbow House in Omaha, next to Children's Hospital, waiting for the chemo to start working.

She cries on the phone Monday.

The first-grade moms at Humann are collecting stamps so the kids can mail Braedon letters. One every day.

They're buying anti-bacterial gel for Heather, who goes through a bottle every other day.

"It's weighing heavy on our hearts," Becky Rankin says. "When you have four healthy kids, sometimes you forget there's another side to things."

At St. Mark's Kidzone, they've collected money for a fund for Heather and Braedon at Westgate Bank.

They've sent cards and toys. They started a prayer chain.

They've visited the boy who was in their Turtle Room this summer.

The boy who loved blue sno-cones and digging in the sand and bowling.

"He was a lover," says one of his teachers, Lisa Peterson.

Oh, Lisa, I love you, he'd say. I love you, Miss Lisa! You're so cute.

He started getting sick toward the end of August, a fever and sore throat.

But he started first grade.

They all loved him at Humann, too.

A smart little boy, says Kim Rosenthal, the school's coordinator.

"He was slow to warm up. But once he knew you, you were a friend for life."

Becky Rankin's son Tanner is one of the first-graders who misses his friend.

"I'm sorry you don't get to come back for Halloween," Tanner wrote on Braedon's Caring Bridge page.

"We are totally going to see you when your doctor says it's OK."

Braedon has at least 12 weeks of chemo left.

His hair started falling out Sunday night.

"I think it was harder on me," his mom says. "He's pretty much all I have."

Before Braedon could talk, Heather talked for him.

She would hold up a picture book. Do you want this?

Then she'd answer her question. Yes! I want that!

She talked for two until Braedon was 4.

She worried he wouldn't be able to go to a regular classroom when he started kindergarten. But he did. He walked right up to elementary school last year.

Humann, here I come, he said.

In Lincoln, where so many people love him, they're here. Waiting for Braedon to come back.

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com