A million years ago I was a reporter in the small town of Yuma, Arizona. Yuma is many things: a border town, a military town, a living heat wave, and the place where I first earned the title ‘reporter’ and ‘anchor’. It will forever be stamped as the city where I met the crew from the Enola Gay, where I flew in a CH-46 Sea Knight with the Marine Corps, where I first experienced 122 degrees and learned to water ski.
And it will always be where I met and fell in love with Vanessa Rodriguez. She was not quite seven years old, spunky as you might imagine and in the midst of the fight of her life.
Vanessa was born on April 16th, 1990. On the morning of August 8th, 1997, her parents called me, a small-town reporter from the local NBC affiliate, to tell me she had died. The cancer she had been fighting had finally won. I was devastated. My station, KYMA, actually gave me a sick day.
I first met Vanessa as part of a news story…. I was covering her battle with cancer, a local fundraiser in her honor and her ‘wish’ with the Make-A-Wish Foundation – to go to DisneyWorld.
As a result of the story (or so the Assistant Principal at her school told me in a note I still have), the coverage helped to raise more than $6000, a funeral home offered to cover the cost of her funeral when the time came and a car dealership loaned the family a car to drive back and forth to Phoenix for treatment.
And Make-A-Wish? Well, they granted that little girl’s wish. Disney World HAPPENED.
And it was awesome.
An organization that grants wishes of sick and dying children is nothing short of magical.
As I prepared to tell you this story, I realized I was crying. My husband found me sitting in our upstairs closet sifting through relics of my past life. Pictures of me with my anchor-bob haircut, drafts of stories I once wrote, comics with ‘news-humor’, and even a few fan letters from prison. Yes, I was 22 once-upon-a-time.
But what I was looking for was this:
My volunteer badge from the Make-A-Wish Foundation – I was on the local board and loved everything about it, a thank you note from Vanessa’s school (the one I mentioned above), a note from her family, and the Remembrance from her funeral. She was younger than both of my small people are now. What a punch in the gut.
It makes words from this letter from my grandmother that much more poignant: “I don’t think that there is anything more devastating than losing one’s child.” These words are written in a note I had tucked amongst these same items. My grandmother knew how attached I had become to Vanessa and how crushed I would soon be by her loss. She wrote that my parents had been keeping her up to date about ‘dear little Vanessa’ and her visit to Disney World and the ‘final and most distressing news’. She continued, “I know how much you care for this little angel. I’m so sorry, Darlin'”
That’s what my Grams called me. Darlin’.
As I re-read her words, I realized I was grateful for a first job that lead me to Vanessa, so grateful I had kept these mementos and this letter from my Grammie – a woman who turned 100 in February and no longer remembers me, grateful for people I love who once called me ‘Darlin’, and so incredibly grateful for a world that includes the Make-A-Wish® Foundation.
Vanessa was one of the first children I saw experience the joy of a wish granted, but I was truly blessed to see others as well. On the local board, I was officially a ‘wish granter’ so was lucky enough to work with many families and extraordinary children.
How much do you admire the Make-A-Wish® Foundation and the amazing work they do for families every day? This month is a PERFECT time to express your admiration and love with ‘Give A Minute, Help Make-A-Wish‘. Every single Saturday this month, Straight Talk Wireless will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish for each person who visits their local Walmart and takes a minute to learn more about Straight Talk. They will be donating up to $1,000,000.
If you’d like another way to help, between now and September 28th, Straight Talk will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish® up to $100,000 towards their one million dollar goal, when you share the video on straighttalkwish.com. (that’s one donation per viewer, per day).
What are you waiting for?
Vanessa and thousands of other children (and their families) thank you.
Disclosure: I have a working relationship with One2One Network and Straight Talk. Though, as always all opinions and stories stated are my very own.
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