Mom Tried to Save Son with Cerebral Palsy from L.A. Fires. How She’s Remembering Her ‘Miracle Baby’ One Year Later

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the devastating California wildfires, Shelley Sykes raised a three-foot-tall statue on her Malibu estate to honor her son, Rory Callum Sykes. Rory was 32 when he died in a cottage on his family’s property that was destroyed in the blaze.

Beneath the Phoenix statue, Shelley placed some of her son’s ashes.

“A year has flown by, but it’s been incredibly hard,” says Shelley, now 63. “You never lose it, you never forget your baby. He was my miracle baby.”

Rory was born blind and with cerebral palsy. Doctors once feared he would never see or walk, yet over time he regained his sight and learned not only to walk, but to run.

“He always said, ‘It isn’t what happens to you in life that counts. It’s what you do about it that matters,’” Shelley recalls.

Fire conditions near Mount Malibu—the 17-acre estate Shelley designed specifically for her son—began intensifying around 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 7. Hours later, evacuation warnings were issued, but like many others in the area, they remained.

As the Palisades fire drew closer, Shelley sheltered inside her home, repeatedly checking on the cuckoo clock–shaped chalet where her son lived. She has said that Rory urged her to take care of herself and leave him in his cottage as she anxiously watched the flames approach.

When Shelley noticed sparks landing on the roof of her son’s cottage, she ran outside and grabbed a hose—only to find there was no water. She pounded on the locked door and rushed to find help, but by the time they returned, it was already too late.

Investigators later told her that Rory died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

In the year since her son’s death, Shelley has been living in a small structure on the property that survived the fire.

“I’ve been healing on the land,” she says. “I’ve become a bit of a recluse.”

The tiny home has no running water or electricity. She visits a friend’s house to bathe and do laundry, and at night she sleeps bundled in multiple pairs of socks and a secondhand coat to keep warm. While permits and insurance funds to rebuild are still pending, she is grateful to have a place she can call her own.

Shelley marked her son’s memory with a memorial service held on their shared birthday, July 29.

“I was emotional, but I held it together,” she says. “It was simply beautiful.”

To honor the anniversary of Rory’s passing, Shelley was also invited to attend a gathering at the Palisades Veterans Club alongside families of 12 others who lost loved ones.

“I’ll be there and try to put on a brave face,” she says. “But I know I’ll break down the moment they say his name.”

Looking ahead, Shelley plans to relaunch her charity and one day fulfill her son’s dream of building a “happy home” on the property for children without families. She also hopes to continue writing and to update her son’s book, Callum’s Cure, with a final chapter—using it as a way to teach children about compassion and kindness, qualities Rory embodied deeply.

“I don’t think it’s about how long you live,” she says. “It’s about how much love you fill your life with. And he was full of love.”