Grace: A Child's Intimate Journey Through Cancer and Recovery
After visiting Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Hugo HopeMobile headed northward through Georgia and South Carolina until we arrived at our destination for that evening, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Mom and I were both struck by the large amount of road construction through South Carolina and especially North Carolina. People have told me how beautiful North Carolina is. One thing we were delighted to discover is how much they care about making their highways beautiful; there were colorful flowers growing everywhere along the interstate.
North Carolina flowers in bloom!
Duke University and Duke Children’s Hospital were first on our schedule for early the following day. We loved the area, the enormous trees shading the streets and buildings, and the homes with wrap-around porches that spoke, “Come sit in my rocking chair and eat this delicious apple pie Grandma just took out of the oven!”
Our stop at Duke Children’s was quick. They are one of the hospitals with strict rules about having no visitors under 18, so we stopped long enough to give them a book for their resource library before we fired up Hugo once again. We traveled through Virginia and Washington D.C., where we could see the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Memorial, lots of domes, and a military helicopter that nearly skimmed Hugo’s roof as we gawked at the sights.
I believe this is the first Gold Medal Award Driving Day of the Hope Tour for Mom. We got off the interstate in Baltimore after our Washington D. C. adventures to take a look at Johns Hopkins. Without going into any gory details, I would not recommend driving through Baltimore. Our journey ended this day as we pulled into our hotel in Philadelphia quite late at night. I do remember the two of us plopping down on our beds like floppy fish!
Hope Tour Story to be continued…
Now, to the present day…
I turned to Mom this morning and stated, “Life is hard.”
She looked at me lovingly and replied, “You’re not supposed to know that yet.”
It’s true, my life is, and always will be, different. Knowing what I am “not supposed to know yet” makes me that way. Since I cannot change my “differentness,” I feel a great responsibility to use it wisely. My intent and my great desire are to transform it into hope.
I will admit that it is hard to do, especially when I see great suffering and great loss.
Today, I heard news of the loss of one of the most inspiring cancer warriors I have been blessed to learn about… Kendall. My love goes to Kendall’s family and to Benji, the greatest buddy Kendall could have ever spent time with. I know that everyone on the staff at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans must be very, very sad—they loved Kendall so.
If you would like to take action to help, this is one way you may save a child’s life. I know of a little girl named Lexi who desperately needs a transplant. One swab of your cheek will tell you if you have the opportunity of a lifetime to save a child’s life.
http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_Now/join_now.html and then input the referral code: FriendsofLexi
Melinda Marchiano 
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