From Darcy -
A few months after We’ll Get This! launched and Tobin sadly left us, I was pretty much waking up, doing whatever came my way and going to sleep without thinking. We had established contacts with all three campuses of Texas Children’s Hospital as well as MD Anderson Cancer Center, and delivered Uber, gas and parking cards to the social workers who helped connect us to families who needed it most.
One afternoon, I got an email directly from a family whose young daughter’s cancer had come back after treatment at their home in China. They’d come to Houston in hopes that MD Anderson would be able to help their little girl. They didn’t have any support system in the States. Their baby’s treatment was not covered by any insurance, so they were attempting to pay for everything themselves. They were very young, their daughter being maybe 6 or 7 years old, and all I could think was, their daughter’s cancer had come back so quickly, and that’s never good. They were so young, they’ll be carrying this pain for a very long time. Of course, there was nothing I could do about that, but I could try to relieve a tiny bit of their burden.
I was at Hanh Gallery when I got the email, and asked Hanh if she could paint a little We’ll Get This! on one side of her canvas bags, which she did. We loaded the bag full of Uber cards (the family couldn’t drive in the United States and were attempting to get to and from appointments via shuttle buses), a We’ll Get This! blanket, and every little thing we could think of. It felt important, being the first family who had personally requested anything from us.
For me, just the drive to MD Anderson was unpleasant, let alone the smell when we walked into the hospital. Tobin and I had spent so much time in hospitals, and although we always made the best of every little minute, being there again brought back so many memories. I knew I couldn’t let myself feel it, I couldn’t cry, I had a job to do. This is, after all, a job Tobin entrusted to me, expected from me, and I wouldn’t let him down.
The young father spoke very good English (thank goodness because my Chinese is non-existent), and we visited a little when I delivered everything. His little girl was in pretty rough shape, and her mother was occupied with the misery of chemotherapy. For me, it was heart wrenching, but for them it was hell. This was a hell with which I was completely familiar. I remember hoping that their little one would feel good enough to take an Uber to the zoo or the museum or maybe to the symphony.
Although I never heard back from them after that day, I hope they were able to see more of Houston than the inside of a hospital. I hope they were able to make the best of every little minute.
Thank you for supporting We’ll Get This! and the families who need us the most.
