The letter came in a stack of mail. There was a photo included, a picture of a teenage girl with sparkling eyes, shiny hair and a confident smile. I didn\u2019t recognize her. Probably someone who wanted advice on how to get into modeling or television. She was certainly beautiful enough to be a model.<\/p>\n
Then I saw the name at the end of the letter: Jessica. And I knew immediately who she was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe met at St. Jude five years ago,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Not that I could have ever forgotten that wonderful place that had made such a difference to both of us.<\/p>\n
Actress Marlo Thomas was the one who first got me involved. She asked if I would come to a fund-raiser in Los Angeles for St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure,\u201d I said. I\u2019d heard about St. Jude and the good work the doctors and nurses and the rest of the staff there did for children with catastrophic diseases, and I was glad to help in my own small way.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d heard the story behind the hospital too, how when Marlo\u2019s father, actor Danny Thomas, was struggling to make it in the entertainment business he promised God that if success ever came his way he\u2019d do something for the weakest of the weak, the poorest of the poor, children with diseases that seemed impossible to cure.<\/p>\n
Like Marlo, I\u2019d grown up Catholic and I understood why St. Jude\u2019s name was invoked. My mother made sure faith in God was a part of our lives, and we kids were taught to remember St. Jude in our prayers at those times when there didn\u2019t seem to be any hope, because he was the patron saint of lost causes.<\/p>\n
Success came for Danny Thomas\u2014Make Room for Daddy was one of the most popular TV shows of the fifties. He never forgot his promise, and started the Memphis-based hospital that has become a center for pediatric research and care, treating children regardless of whether their families can afford it. A place of hope.<\/p>\n
The L.A. fund-raiser was a big success. That was that, I thought. But Marlo had another request\u2014one that sounded a lot more daunting. \u201cCome to the hospital and meet the kids,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ll love them and they\u2019ll love you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d I said hesitantly. I knew fashion, beauty, fitness and music, not medicine. Not what these desperately ill children needed. What could I really do for them?<\/p>\n
Marlo must have heard the doubt in my voice because she said, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot you can do to help the kids. You\u2019ll see. Talking to them, just being with them, makes a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just being with them. Those words clicked with me. I remembered just being with someone who was very sick, whose illness shook my world\u2014my mom, when she had breast cancer.<\/p>\n
My parents were very traditional and my mom was the glue in the family, the one who took care of all of us and kept everything together. I was born in Cuba. When I was three our family moved to Spain. Like most women in Spain back then, Mom didn\u2019t work outside the home.<\/p>\n
My little sister and I were so blessed to have her close at hand, playing with us, reading to us, teaching us how to cook Cuban comfort food like picadillo (still one of my favorites). Now I realize my parents were struggling financially, but I remember it as a happy time. We did a lot with very little. We were always out and about, exploring Madrid, having picnics, walking around the beautiful squares, or plazas, that the city is known for.<\/p>\n
When I was eight we moved to New Jersey. All at once I was the new kid, the odd one out. There were some Latino kids in school but they couldn\u2019t understand my Castilian Spanish accent. They made fun of me for having a lisp when really I was pronouncing z\u2019s, like in the word zapatos (shoes), with a Castilian \u201cth\u201d sound. I quickly toned down my accent to fit in.<\/p>\n
And I learned English. I picked it up fast watching I Love Lucy. (I can still do a pretty good imitation of Desi Arnaz declaring, \u201cLucy, I\u2019m home!\u201d) One spring day I even discovered my name meant something in English. I was walking home from school and a friend pointed to a white and yellow flower. \u201cLook at that pretty daisy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you call it?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaisy, like your name,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
I raced home and said, \u201cMami, you never told me I was named for a flower!\u201d She had no idea. In Spanish, Daisy is a girl\u2019s name, not a flower.<\/p>\n
When it came to rules and discipline, my dad was very old world, very strict. Date in high school? Not us Fuentes girls. No way. I couldn\u2019t get my dad to let me go to the movies with a boy even if my sister came along as a chaperone. My dad\u2019s philosophy was, if a boy really liked me, he could come over and sit on our front steps and talk to me. And believe me, if the poor kid overstayed his welcome, Dad would march out and say, \u201cGood night, son.\u201d Time to go!<\/p>\n
I was 19, living at home, doing some modeling and just starting to get into TV work when Mom had a routine checkup and told me she\u2019d found a lump in her breast. \u201cThe doctor doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s anything serious,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Breast cancer wasn\u2019t talked about so openly back then, but I knew enough to be concerned, especially since she was only 39.<\/p>\n
\u201cMami, you need to go to a specialist so we can know for sure,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking the very same thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She went to a specialist and got a biopsy. I was home when the doctor called with the results. Mom hung up and told me, \u201cIt\u2019s cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019d never seen my mother, who handled everything that came our family\u2019s way so capably, look so scared and helpless. \u201cYou\u2019ll be okay,\u201d I said, even though I wasn\u2019t at all sure.<\/p>\n
We told Dad when he got home from work. He tried to be strong but he couldn\u2019t hide the fact that he was terribly frightened.
\nMom put on a brave front. \u201cThe doctor said we caught it really early. All I\u2019ll need is a lumpectomy and some radiation treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do you do when the ground beneath you is shaken? How do you find your footing again? That year I learned. I was an adult, starting my career, but one of life\u2019s most important lessons still came from my parents. We met our fear with faith in God and in each other. We got through the crisis by praying and sticking together.<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s radiation treatments were at a hospital in New York, so we made each trip into the city a family outing. We\u2019d go to lunch, do a little window shopping, take a walk in Central Park, like we used to in the plazas of Madrid.<\/p>\n
The treatments took a lot out of her. \u201cRest, Mami, rest,\u201d my sister and I told her. \u201cWe\u2019ll do the chores.\u201d She wouldn\u2019t let us take over the cooking, but we did all of the cleaning\u2014dusting, mopping, vacuuming, laundry. Those little things were a way to give each other hope, to remind our mother that we were all in this together.<\/p>\n
The treatments worked. Mom\u2019s cancer went into remission and didn\u2019t recur. Even though the crisis passed, I still remembered how important it was to just be with my mom when she was sick. I couldn\u2019t make her well, I couldn\u2019t take her fear away, but I could sit with her in the radiology waiting room. I didn\u2019t even have to say anything. It was enough for her to know she wasn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n
Just being with someone who was sick. Wasn\u2019t that what Marlo Thomas was asking me to do? My hesitancy faded. \u201cOf course,\u201d I told Marlo. \u201cI\u2019ll come to St. Jude.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marlo was right. I loved being with the kids. We talked and played games, drew pictures and read stories. Sometimes it was hard to hold on to hope, especially when I found out how serious their diseases were. There was one girl, a nine-year-old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, her hair all gone from chemotherapy, but she didn\u2019t let any of that get in the way of her bubbly personality. She took my hand and introduced me to her stuffed animals and told me about all of her friends. She giggled a lot and I found myself laughing too. That was Jessica.<\/p>\n
I hugged her goodbye knowing that I might never see her again, the odds seemed so stacked against her. But then those are exactly the sort of odds the people at St. Jude aren\u2019t afraid to take on. Kids get not only the best medical treatment available, they also get a good dose of courage and hope and friendship and laughter. Lost causes? Not at St. Jude. And I am grateful to be a part of what they do.<\/p>\n
Now I looked at the picture Jessica sent me. She was glowing with health, her outward appearance reflecting the radiant inner spirit I\u2019d seen when I met her five years earlier. \u201cI will never forget your visit,\u201d Jessica wrote.<\/p>\n
Neither will I.<\/p>\n