A death in your family is never easy to deal with. But what might be hardest is when a parent loses a child. Actor Gary Sinise recently lost his son and has been of course going through a hard time.

Keep reading to learn more about what happened…

Gary since, recently lost his son Mac Sinise after the latter’s prolonged battle with a rare form of cancer called chordoma. Mac was only 33 years old at the time of his passing. After his son’s passing, the 68-year-old actor is now opening up about the challenges he has faced in terms of his grief at this profound loss.

“As parents, it is sodifficult losing a child My heart goes out to all who have suffered a similar loss and to anyone who has lost a loved one. We’ve all experienced it in some way,” Sinise shared in a heartwrenching tribute to his late son. “Over the years, I have met so many families of our fallen heroes. It’s heartbreaking, and it’s just damn hard.”

Sinise, who is the father of three, disclosed his son’s rare diagnosis in August 2018. The diagnosis coincided with his wife’s diagnosis, and the actor took time to research the diagnosis. “I had never heard of this,” Sinise said. “And two cancer patients, mother and son, within two months of each other? A real punch in the gut.”

“I went online to see what I could find. Chordoma is a one-in-a-million cancer. Originating in the spine, Chordoma affects, on average, only 300 people in the U.S. per year,” he explained the rarity of its occurrence. “In 70% of the cases, the initial tumor can be removed, and it is cured. But in 30% of the cases, perhaps about 90 people per year, the cancer returns.”

Sinise shared of his son that while he had been going through such a tough diagnosis, he still showed a lot of resilience and strength throughout the ordeal which lasted quite a while. “Our family’s cancer fight lasted for 5 ½ years, and it became more and more challenging as time went on,” he shared. “While our hearts ache at missing him, we are comforted in knowing that Mac is no longer struggling, and inspired and moved by how he managed it,” the actor said of his late son.

He said that Mac’s decision to not let his diagnosis affect him was what motivated and inspired the rest of the family. “He fought an uphill battle against a cancer that has no cure, but he never quit trying. Mac loved movies, and we always told him he reminded us of the soldier at the end of the extraordinary film 1917, running through the battlefield, bombs going off all around him, knocking him down one after the other, yet he keeps getting back up, refusing to quit and keeps running forward,” Sinise shared. ”I am so blessed, fortunate, and proud to be his dad,” the actor added.