What Really Happened to Aaron Robertson’s Sperm?

Stricken with a terminal illness, he froze his sperm before he died, but when his wife went back six years later it was gone. Does another family have their kids?

Illustration by Dave van Patten

This story is republished from MEL Magazine. MEL aims to challenge, inspire and encourage readers to drop any preconceived notions of who they're supposed to be.

When Sarah and Aaron Robertson married, they knew their time together might be limited. Aaron had Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects connective tissue throughout the body. It often leads to serious heart complications and can be fatal.

“From the beginning of our relationship and our marriage, love was number one, at the forefront, but also death was a very big part,” Sarah Robertson tells me from her home in California. “Not many people are faced with their own mortality every single day. At a very young age [Aaron] had a worldly perspective on life. To be sixteen years old and to understand that people are precious and life is precious, and then pass that along to me — I can’t even describe to you how special that is.”

She takes a moment to compose herself. It sounds like she may be …