What Jeni wants most.

When you ask Jeni what she wants most in the world, it's always a version of the same idea: That her children are happy, healthy, and get an education that prepares them for the world.

 

For the last eight years, Jeni has been fighting colon cancer. She had been winning, or rather in something of a truce, for most of that time. But this last year, the cancer fought dirty. It brought in Leukemia. And for the first time in eight years, her body wasn't able to fight back.

 

The last few months have seen Jeni weaken to the point where she was no longer able to travel, then no longer able to drive, and then, finally, no longer able to teach.   Teaching has always been one of the most important things in her life -- for her, for her children, for her community.   Second only to her family, it was the thing that gave her strength, that gave her purpose.  She kept teaching long after her body tried to make her stop, long after the pain became almost too much to bear.  She taught until her legs could literally no longer carry her from the door to the classroom.    Her students never knew how sick she really was, how sick she is now, how hard she fought to stay with them, because she didn't want them to be scared.  School is a special, happy place, and even now, at her weakest, she is still fighting to keep it that way for her students.  

She has one thing left.  She still has her family. And for now, for right now, they still have her. But the fight is almost over.

 

And that's where we are today. She is home with her family, cherishing the time they have together, knowing it will be coming to an end very soon. Friends have been asking how they could help. What can they do? What does she need? What does she want?

 

She wants time. She wants a future with Fabricio. She wants to know that Dante, Bianca, and Nico will be cared for, will be loved. She wants to know that the medical bills won't break them. She wants to know that there will be food on the table, that they will have a home, that they will be able to go to college.

 

But we can't give her time. We can't give her back the future she is losing.

 

We can do something, though. We can let her know that no matter what, her family will be okay. That her children will be okay. That her friends will be there helping Fabricio, that he doesn't have to do this alone.

 

And we can do that now, we can show her now, comfort her now. Ease her fears now.

 

How can you help? What can you do? You can do so much.

 

Sometimes the most we can do is also the easiest thing. We can help with those medical bills. We can feed them. We can give them, for now, one less thing to worry about.

 

We can help.

 

Every dollar sent is a love note to Jeni, one that says, simply, "We are there for you, for your family.  We treasure you."