Honoring the Memory and Life of Zy

Our sweet boy Zy Mateo recently passed on January 19, 2024

Lauryne and Daniel welcomed their red-headed boy on July 25, 2013. There were no suspicions that Zy had any genetic disorders during pregnancy and at birth. However, during his first few days of newborn life, they saw his first seizure. It was a long road to diagnose Zy due to him never fitting into one box. He was finally diagnosed after the best neurogeneticist was intrigued by Zy's lack of diagnosis mixed with his incomparable beauty and seizure profile. The neurogeneticist took Zy under her research wings and journeyed down a long winding road of extensive research at Baylor University. A mouse, muscle, nerve biopsies, and a couple of publications later he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, where he remained the rarest of the rare, SPTBN4 (or beta spectrin 4), as well as a mitochondrial DNA disorder/dysfunction. His diagnosis is very tricky to understand because when compared to other human subjects with the same diagnosis, Zy's results are different. He truly is a rare, beautiful boy.

Zy’s life expectancy was about 3 years and he surpassed that and made it to 10 years and 6 months!!! Zy was able to live a beautiful, happy life that surpassed his life expectancy due to his wonderful team of therapists, nurses, doctors, friends, and family. Mom and Dad were able to keep this boy thriving by trying things out of the norm. They tried everything and anything that could help Zy, such as simply changing his water to Fiji. The first few years of Zy's life he was having over 75 seizures a day. Through so much exploration Mom and Dad were able to find methods that decreased Zy's seizures to less than 10 a day. No matter the obstacles they preserved, readjusted, and kept going.

Zy has family all over the world who continue to share his story and his gift of life. His grandparents in El Paso and grandma in Juarez adored their little boy and he loved them just as much.

This boy has been a gift to everyone he has touched and continues to make an impact on the world. Zy made an anatomical gift to Stanford University, he continues to help others as they use his gift to research Mitochondrial DNA. He is our Hero. Thank you Zy, you will forever change the world.

We ask for donations to help give Zy a beautiful memorial and to help relieve some financial stress on the family. If you’d like to donate directly to

Lauryne’s cashapp: $moegauthier

Thank you for taking the time to read about Zy and for any donations you can make. Please continue to honor Zy in your daily life. He only knew the good in life and for that, we are so happy. He loved being held, watching RuPaul’s Drag Race, eating sweets, spa days, listening to chismes, swimming, getting his tan on during his walks, and listening to all types of music. Zy had beautiful red hair, crazy soft skin, a contagious smile, and the most perfect nose. We love you so much you sweet, beautiful, silly boy ❤️

Zy’s service date is TBD and I will keep the gofundme updated. Thank you all so much for caring for Zy and his family.