For more than three decades, Shelley Sykes did all she could to bring her son to success and happiness despite his physical challenges as an infant of blindness and immobility because of cerebral palsy.
By 5, Rory Callum Sykes walked; by 8, he could see because his mother diligently patched his eyes daily for eight years. When the cold and rainy weather of his native England caused his limbs to stiffen, Shelley Sykes moved the pair to warm and sunny Australia, where she said he flourished.
“His wish was that he would walk to school and he loved that he could,” she said through tears this week recalling one of her son’s early successes just days after Rory Sykes, 32, died on Jan. 8 in his Malibu cottage in the Palisades fire. The fire’s path of destruction also obliterated the structures on the family’s 17-acre ranch, where Shelley Sykes also headquartered the Mount Malibu TV Studios.
‘A very extraordinary life’
In his three decades, Rory endured 17 years of surgeries, taking him in and out of hospitals, but he still became a “great communicator,” spreading goodness and inspiration to all he encountered, she said.
“He would always say: ‘It isn’t what happens to you in life; it’s what you do with it,’ ” she said. “We have led a very extraordinary and luxurious life. I wanted him to experience life despite him being special needs.”
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In Australia, Rory Sykes attended St. Mary’s Cathedral College, but when he became “too naughty for the priests,” Shelley Sykes said she homeschooled her son.
The pair traveled the world from Africa to Antarctica. In 1998, he appeared in the British TV series “Kiddy Kapers.” He became known for speeches on overcoming difficulties. He spoke on behalf of the Tony Robbins Foundation and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. In 2005, mother and son founded the Happy Charity, which, according to its website, offers hope, happiness and health to those hurting.”
In 2010, they moved to the U.S. and lived in a hotel for three years while the ranch property in Malibu was made ready.
“It was Rory’s dream to come over,” Shelley Sykes said. “He wanted to be close to Apple; he loved pizzas and the big burgers; he loved the Apple stores; he was a developer for Apple; he was in his element here.”
Fire threatens
But on Jan. 8, a day after the fire exploded from the wildland near the Temescal Ridge and blasted into the Pacific Palisades residential community, Shelley Sykes once again tried to be there for her son as embers flew across their Malibu property — some landing on the roof of his home.
It had been just two weeks before that firefighters battled another nearby blaze, and, with her property a half-mile from Los Angeles Fire Department Camp 8, she said she still felt relatively safe.
“When they announced there was another fire and we saw it all happening, Rory said, ‘Mum, I’m not going,’ ” she said. “I said, well, come to the main house, and he locked his door, and he’s very stubborn. Both of us thought it would be like what it was two weeks earlier. We didn’t expect 911 wouldn’t work and we didn’t expect that the water would be shut off.
“So, when I saw embers on Rory’s cottage, I couldn’t wet down the roof, and he wouldn’t come out, and I raced to the fire department and said, ‘You’ve got to get Rory, he won’t come out,’ ” she said.
She figured they would use a hatchet to break down the door and force her 6-foot-5, 250-pound son to leave. His feet had been terribly swollen lately, she said. Even walking with crutches had been difficult for him.
But an hour later, she said, the firefighters returned and told her she needed to come to her property.
“When I got there, all three cottages were burned to the ground; Rory’s cottage was decimated,” she said through tears. “All these ashes were blowing around.”
A new refuge
Now, a week later, Shelley Sykes is seeking refuge at a friend’s house in Huntington Beach.
She’s there with her two peacocks — a blue bird and a rare white one. The pair were the only thing she grabbed as she fled to the fire station seeking help for her son. Shelley Sykes was just recovering from a broken arm, and she said it took all her strength just to open the garage door, get the car out and push her two peacocks inside.
Mickie and Edgee are now among her most cherished gifts from her son. He had given her Mickie and a female bird in 2016 for their birthday — both mother and son shared July 29 as their birthday. The date is also Shelley Sykes’ mother’s birthday, and when the peachicks, a brood of five, hatched a year later, they also were born that day. The birds, she said, are a sort of omen for carrying on something good.
In all the sadness now, Shelley Sykes said she clings to the birds as she grieves the loss of her child and her life’s companion.
In a few days, Shelley Sykes said she hopes to return to Malibu and move into a neighbor’s home near her property. She said the location would give the birds familiarity and needed space and also put her close to her property. She said she would concentrate on working and operating the charity she and Rory built.
Mother learns of son’s impact
Meanwhile, she continues to look for signs of all the good her son gave the world.
While she said she is aware of the impact of his speaking engagements, she didn’t know of his prominence in the gaming world of RuneScape. Since childhood, she said, he was fascinated with computer games and, as an adult, spent hours a day playing games.
His cottage was set up with the latest technology, including a wall-size TV screen and multiple laptops. Once word got out of his death in the gaming world — where he operated under the name “Nitsos” — Shelley Sykes said she was overcome with support.
“He had such a massive following,” she said. “I didn’t even know who these people were. I’m elated in how all these people were affected by him and by the kind messages they’ve sent.”
She will also concentrate on a plan to re-release inspirational books she has written and update music shows.
Among the books is “Callum’s Cure: A Triumph of Positive Parenting,” which is Shelley Sykes’ autobiographical account of raising her son to overcome his obstacles.
“He wanted me to release updates,” she said, recalling him pestering her at the start of the new year when he told her to “stop renovating (inside her home) and get the books out.”
It was important to him that she update the books to correspond with the release of some new music videos and shows due this year.
Among Rory’s favorite music productions was “Rappin’ Mama.”
“He loved it because I rapped that song when he was at Anthony Robbins’ Discovery Camp when he was 8 and was a keynote speaker bringing 69 other youth off the streets from Sydney to San Diego,” she said. “He was there to inspire the teens who had been abused.”
The show later played on Australian TV for a season.
“I don’t have any guilt,” she said. “I know I did the very best for him. I know I was the best mum I could be.
“I’m going to inspire people to let them know you can live for joy. Rory was so full of joy.”