Best friends forever: Boy, 12, raises money to buy headstone for best friend

DETROIT (FOX2) - The best friend of a 12-year-old boy who lost his fight to Leukemia earlier this year has just one thing he wants for Christmas this year: a headstone for his best friend.

Kaleb Klakulak was best friends with KJ, a 12-year-old boy who died last spring. Now Kaleb wants to honor his friend but needs some help along the way.

"I'm trying to raise money for his headstone," Kaleb said.

The big-hearted 7th grader is remembering the good times with his friend - which include losing to KJ in video games. Pictures show the two were inseparable since second grade - even until the end.

"He was that ray of hope that KJ needed when he was depressed, Kaleb was there even when KJ couldn't speak," KJ's mom, Lasondra Singleton said.

KJ was diagnosed when he just 13 months old. Over the next 11 years of his short life, he had a long fight.

"No one ever knew what he was going through because he never complained and he never displayed it on the outside, he was just a normal kid," Singleton said.

For seven years, she didn't work so she could take care of KJ. The bills mounted and, when KJ died, the family was unable to afford a gravestone for his site at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.

So Kaleb stepped in.

"He started off with asking how much a headstone costs and things like that," Kristy Hall, his mom, said.

Instead of worrying about his Christmas list, Hall says he was worried about one last gift for his friend.

He started doing odd jobs and returning cans to raise money for a gravestone.

"He truly loved KJ he will have a lot of friends in his life but no one like KJ," Hall said.

Kaleb set up a fundraising page and the donations started to come in. As of right now, it looks as if Kaleb will get his Christmas wish.