A5


Make A Wish
“Have a good weekend,” my bus driver said as I hopped off the bus. I walked down my long rocky driveway that lead to my front door. It was so hot outside my palms were sweating as I grabbed onto the doorknob. Right as I stepped in, I saw my mom.

“Hi Honey, I made a doctors appointment for you because of those bad headaches you have been having. It’s time to go,” she exclaimed.
I jumped into the front seat of the car. The doctor’s office was about 10 minutes away, but for some reason today it felt like the longest car ride ever.
Finally we pulled into the crowded parking lot. As I walked in, the nurse was already calling my name.
“Katie Montague,” she said in a sweet voice as she lead us into the doctor’s room. When I trudged in, the doctor was there waiting for me.
“Hello Katie, what can I help you with?” Dr. Lodato said in a concerned voice.
“Well, I have been having severe headaches. They have been going on for a while.”
“We will take a few x-rays after we check your heartbeat and the usual.” She smiled. Dr Lodato took out her stethoscope. The cold tool slipped across my skin as the doctor listened to my heart beat. I was told to take three deep breaths in, as if I was blowing out birthday candles. Then she told me to follow her into the x-ray room. There were huge machines and doctors everywhere. One was a young man in a white lab coat.
“Hello Katie. I am Dr. Styles. I will be taking your x-rays. You’re going to lay down in this white machine. Then when you come out, we will take a look at your brain and we will get to the bottom of this. Sound good?” he said with a charming smile.
“Sounds good.” I exclaimed. I lay down in the cold machine. My head was still pounding. Also my stomach hurts from being so nervous. I took deep breaths in to calm myself down. I was trying not to think about the fact that there were x-rays examining my body. Finally I saw light. That meant the x-ray was over and I could finally get out of the dark tube. I hopped out of the machine and walked to the doctor.
“We will show you the results soon. Wait in this office until we do so.”
I walked into the dull white office with my mom. We silently sat in our seats wondering why the doctor was taking so long.
Finally after an hour of sitting in an office, Mr Styles walked in with a worried look on his face. That’s when I knew something was wrong.
“Can I please talk to you?” Dr. Styles asked my mom as he guided her into a separate room. After a few minutes I was getting worried. Where was my mom? What was the doctor telling her that he couldn’t tell me? All these thoughts circled in my mind.
Finally, my mom walked in. Her eyes were bloodshot. It looked as if she was just crying.
“Mom, what’s going on?” I said in a worried tone as I paced back and forth.
“Honey, you have brain cancer,” she could barely talk. She could no longer hold in the tears they all poured down her cheeks.My heart sank. I felt like I couldn’t move. This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be!
“NO! This has to be a mistake!!!” I screamed as I sprinted out the door. I ran through the doctor’s office until I couldn’t run anymore. Tears dripped endlessly down my face. Everything was so blurry I couldn’t see anything. After a few minutes I realized that I couldn’t take this out on my mom. She didn’t do anything, it was not her fault. I slowly started to walk back to the office to find my mom. I was still pouting but I wanted to show my mom I was strong. As I was walking back, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much this was going to change my life. I blocked out the world and thought about how hard this was going to be on my family. I was scared.
Finally, I reached the office and ran straight into my mom’s arms.
“We are going to get through this together.”
I couldn’t say anything back. I couldn’t talk at all. I had a huge knot in my throat, I tried to be strong and hold back my tears but I couldn’t. They just kept pouring out. Why was this happening to me? Was I being punished?
“Mom am I going to be okay?” I asked hopefully.
“I hope so Honey.”
The next day in school, everybody somehow found out about my brain tumor. I think almost everybody came up to me saying, “Stay strong.”
I’m not so sure if that was a good or a bad thing. I mean I get everyone was trying to be nice and supportive but I have never been popular until now. I don’t want people to be friends with me for the wrong reason.
**************
That friday was the day when I had to start chemo. I had to go in twice a week to get my medicine. This made me very nervous because it’s making me realize I really do have cancer, it was not going to be over tomorrow I’m really going to have to fight through this.
School felt like the quickest day ever. It was probably because I didn’t want to go to the hospital today for my medication. I got to leave 20 minutes early from school, that’s the only good thing. Lately I have been trying to look at the positive side. I thought maybe it would help me stay strong. Everytime I tried to think of the positive side, it always made me remember the negative side too.
While I sat in class I heard the phone make a noise,“Please send Katie down to the office, her mom is here to pick her up,” Miss King, the lady from the the main office said. I gathered my stuff and walked to the office to see my mom.
We sat in the car silently for about 15 minutes the we finally pulled in.
“We are here.” My mom said to break the silence. I walked into the doctor’s office without any emotion, I didn’t want to show how sad I really was. I have to stay strong for my mom.
“Katie,” the nurse said leading me into the hospital room.
I looked around the room and saw young kids with absolutely no hair. Soon that would be me. I saw sad faces everywhere. It broke my heart seeing people having people to go through this much pain. This made me realize, I was really not the only one. I needed to stop being so selfish and think about how other people go through this too! I sat down in the recliner and my mom closed the curtain. The nurse came in the room and told me a little bit about chemo. It made me feel much better about the whole thing.
“Okay I am going to put this in your arm,” The young doctor told me as she picked up a tube and a needle. I had to look away as she almost put the needle into me.
“1..2...3.” Then quickly she put the needle into my arm. I didn’t hurt that bad it felt like I was just getting a regular shot. After about an hour of sitting in the hospital, we finally got to leave. I went home and I couldn’t stop thinking about all the little kids going through cancer. I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself. I thought about it all day. I went on the internet and looked up all these different organization supporting cancer. I found this really amazing organization called “Make A Wish Foundation,” it is for kids with cancer who want one last wish until they pass away. I don’t want to join the foundation though I want to help raise money. My only wish is for others to be happy and that will make me happy.
“Mom, I have decided what I want to do in my life.”
“What is it honey? ”
“I want to help Make a Wish Foundation.”
“You want to join that foundation?”
“No mom! I want to HELP Make A Wish, by raising money. I want people to be able to live a happy life and get their last wish.”
My mom teared up and gave me a huge hug.
“I’m so proud of you,” she said.
That made me the happiest girl in the world because that’s all I wanted; to make my mom happy.
*****************
Chemo became a regular thing to me. I walked in, said hello to Kathy at the front desk, and walked into my hospital room. That day was different though. My mom and I were taking a drive down to the “Make A Wish” foundation.
I finally finished chemo and it was time to head down to the foundation. It seems like lately my mom doesn’t like to talk to me in the car rides like she used to. We used to listen to music and talk about everything, but now it’s just dead silence. Ever since she found out about my cancer it hasn’t been the same between us.
After about an hour or two we finally arrived at the tall office building with a “Make a Wish” sign along the top. I walked into the building with my head held high. I wasn’t wearing anything on my bare head. I’m going to shock the ladies at the front desk when I tell them I am not here to make a wish.
“Hello young lady. How may I help you?”
“I’m here because i was recently diagnosed with brain cancer.”
“I’m very sorry honey. Are you looking to join our program?”
“No I want to help. I know how all these kids feel. I was thinking about hosting a fashion show to raise money. I also want to show them how beautiful they really are.”
“Wow. You are one special girl” She said smiling
“They would love that, it would make their day.” She finished.
“So is that a yes?” Katie exclaimed hopefully.
“When do we start?” She exclaimed with the biggest smile.
For the next 3 weeks I have been coming to the foundation daily after chemo. We have been working so hard. Hanging up flyers, getting the clothes designed, finding makeup artist practicing and much more.
Each day I feel worse and worse. I always feel so tired. The fashion show is tomorrow. All the kids were so excited and so was I.
After a long day today is finally the day of the fashion show. All the kids were getting their makeup done by the professional artist. They all looked beautiful. Their smiles were from ear to ear, and their eyes lit up the room.
An hour went by and the auditorium was completely full with parents, friends, and family. We all waited behind the curtain. When the clock said 1:00 pm it was my turn to say my speech. “Here I go.” I thought.
“Hi everyone! I’m Katie. A few months ago I was diagnosed with brain cancer. I was completely crushed and bitter to everyone about it. A week later I went in for chemo therapy. I realized that I wasn’t the only one going through this terrible disease These kids at the Make A Wish foundation really inspired me. I had the idea of hosting this fashion show because I really want these girls to see they are beautiful no matter what. And here they are the most strong kids I know. Come out guys.” I exclaimed again trying to hold back the tears. All the parents in the audience sat there in shock, and they had tears dripping down their faces.
The first girl who walked out was named Hannah. She was only five years old when she found out she had cancer, yet she always has a smile on her face. She wore a long pink sparkly dress. The makeup she had on fit her perfectly. Hannah looked amazing. After Hannah five more girls walked out. Last but not least Sophia walked out. While I have been at “Make a Wish,” I have had the strongest connection with Sophia. It was probably because she was my age, but Sophia always looked at the bright side. She has taught me to be a better person. After an hour the fashion show was over.
We went into the back and counted the money and we ended up raising a lot of money.
“Drum roll please.......”
Bum dum bum dum bum dum.
“We raised $7000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations everyone. I’m so proud of you guys.” All the kids were so excited. After I gave the foundation the money I gave everyone a hug and went home.
“I’ll see you guys soon.” I said as I walked out of the door.
Three days later Katie could no longer fight her cancer. It was her time to go. She didn’t want to live so sick and miserable anymore. She wanted to leave her foot print and thats exactly what she did. All the kids she helped from the foundation came to visit her before she passed. They wrote notes that said how much they loved her and looked up to her and that’s all Katie wanted. To show how much the foundation appreciated and loved Katie they made her a memorial. The memorial told Katie's story. People all over the world knew about Katie, and her story.