Families from far and near come together to find joy in Christmas (Jaclyn here!)

Families from far and near come together to find joy in Christmas at Stanford's Ronald McDonald House

By Linda Goldston

lgoldston@mercurynews.com
Posted: 12/25/2009 06:47:15 PM PST
Updated: 12/26/2009 03:50:09 AM PST

The Dwonch family had big plans for an old-fashioned Christmas at home in Walla Walla, Wash.

Their son and his family flew in from Jerusalem last week. Their daughter-in-law's parents were flying over from Italy, and their daughter and her family were driving from Tillamook, Ore.

Then their 2-year-old grandson, Joshua, got sick. Really sick.

That meant this year the Dwonches would be spending Christmas with other families at the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford.

It's a "godsend," said Ann Dwonch, Joshua's grandmother, whose family squeezed every bit of joy they could to make it feel like Christmas.

Joshua got so sick with a liver ailment shortly after his family flew in from Israel that he needed to be airlifted from Walla Walla to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto last Saturday.

Everyone else — both sets of grandparents, Joshua's parents and older sister, Emma, 4, and two family friends — are celebrating Christmas at Ronald McDonald House. Even with Joshua's parents taking turns staying with Joshua in the ICU at Lucile Packard, it's as close to the old-fashioned Christmas the family could get, outside of actually being in Walla Walla, at least.

"Emma got to sit on Santa's knee in front of the tree last night," Ann Dwonch said. "They gave all of the children stockings, and after Emma got hers, she asked if she could have a stocking for her little brother."

The specially designed home,
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where families of seriously ill children have been staying since 1979, has been the home away from home for thousands, and the demand has grown. In the past 15 months, the facility had to turn away more than 1,000 families, said Honey Meir-Levi, executive director of the house.

Because the holidays are such a special time for children, staff and volunteers work around the clock to make sure families get to enjoy as much of the holiday spirit as they can muster. On Christmas Eve, families got to share hot chocolate with marshmallows and a visit with Santa. When children staying at the house woke up Christmas morning, they gleefully ran to the huge Christmas tree inside the entrance, where they found a bag of gifts just for them.

After a festive breakfast prepared by volunteers, families got to kick back and then gathered together again for a Christmas dinner in the dining room.

"It's really inspiring to be here," said Rebecca Mayer, of Foster City, who volunteers several hours a week at the house and brought her family along Friday to help prepare Christmas dinner. "The kids and the families are going through so much, but they have the greatest enthusiasm. They might be taking it day by day," but children like Jaclyn Perea, 15, of Littleton, Colo., "enjoy what they can."

After a kidney transplant, Jaclyn has only been home 10 days since July 4 and knew there was only one thing she wanted for Christmas: a mohawk. She got it Christmas Eve, and her father, Ben, snapped a photo of the stunning haircut with his cell phone so Jaclyn's sisters — Deziree, 18, and Valerie, 20 — could enjoy the haircut, too. Jaclyn is a big heavy-metal music fan, usually wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the name of a band and Vans shoes.

Ben Perea confessed the mohawk might not have been his first choice when he asked Jaclyn what she wanted for Christmas; he was just glad he was able to cheer his daughter's spirits.

If all goes well with tests next week, Jaclyn and her father may finally pack their things at Ronald McDonald House and head home to Colorado. It's been their oasis.

But Joshua's parents will be there awhile.

To get better, his family said, Joshua may have to undergo a liver transplant ,and his mother, Albana, will be the donor.

"I feel grateful I'll at least be able to do something for him," she said.

But she struggled to explain how much it helped for her family to be able to stay at Ronald McDonald House when her son was airlifted to Lucile Packard.

"To come here," she said, "and to find everything as it is, like home, and to just be given a key and have them say 'welcome,' means so much."

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14070991?source=most_emailed