To stream 11Alive on your phone, you need the 11Alive app. Example video title will go here for this video Example video title will go here for this video ATLANTA — On a quiet afternoon in Augusta, Georgia, Donato Bradford stands over his son’s grave, pulling weeds from the edges of the stone, brushing away dirt with his hands. “I told you I was gonna beat it,” he says, his voice steady but low. Every time he finishes a round of chemotherapy, he comes here to update his son, to keep a promise. “I stop by the gravesite and let him know, OK, I’m one step closer,” he said. Bradford stares down at his own name on the headstone. It’s the same name he gave his only son: Donato Junior, known to loved ones as DJ. “Look here, buddy,” he says, gesturing to the news camera and reporter standing beside him. “I’ve got some people that want to see you real quick.” For Bradford, grief has never been separate from survival. He has been fighting lymphoma since May 2024. DJ had just enrolled as a music student at the SAE Institute of Atlanta. “I told him, regardless of what happens to me, you finish school,” Bradford recalled of the conversation with his son. “He said, ‘OK, Dad, I promise.” Just two
