At 2 ½ Ella loved nothing more than to wrestle with her big sister, give and get hugs and kisses and to exist as a little ball of joy and energy. But her mom was getting nervous because even with the rough- housing she thought Ella had too many bruises. Ella started getting a fever once a week and her coloring looked…funny. When Mom asked the pediatrician about blood tests, Ella gleefully bouncing up and down next to her, pure energy head to toe, the doctor gave her a long stare, looked at the rambunctious little one and said now none of us will sleep at night unless we do this test. He pointed out that Ella only had seven bruises, not the required ten bruises usually needed for testing but we’d do it anyway.

On a Wednesday Ella had bloodwork. Three days later pediatric oncologists began Induction, blasting Ella’s little body with chemotherapy to destroy the Leukemia that was trying to destroy her. She was home on Christmas but was so sick from the chemo she didn’t want to play, eat or even open the presents that her 4-year-old big sister kept bringing her, trying to coax a smile out of sissy.

Ella will now prove that her huge smiles and little head tilt with the big curls aren’t just a facade, the curls can fall out, her warm olive skin can become a green pallor but she will still greet every nurse, doctor, tech and anyone who walks by with that smile, a hug when her immune system allows, she will tell them she loves broccoli. She will thank them for helping her and for the popsicles. The nurses ask Ella to please come meet some of the new kids coming in who are scared and shy. Ella pats them on the back and says it is ok, they are ok and that their toy car is SO nice. She tells them they have popsicles here. She has her moments…she crawls under the dining room table to try to get away from injections…it takes months for her parents to figure out how to make steroids tolerable for a little one to swallow and even then, just barely. Ella has a gene that doesn’t function properly so the chemo builds up in her system and overwhelms it so there are pauses in treatment that give Mom and Dad fits. Ella laughs when they have fits. Her prognosis is outstanding.

At the 2 year and 3 month mark Ella completed chemotherapy. She turned 5 a few months later. It will take close to a year for her immune system to recover. Ella did all of this during a pandemic but her doctors knew that contact with grandparents and the people that helped her heart stay joyful helped her healing process and so the doctors set the rules and our village said “we’re on it” and Ella got her hugs. Her sister, Keighan Ivy, walked this path with her. If all else failed, Ella would take her medicine if Keighan was giving it to her. She would make airplane noises, choo choo trains, car sounds, anything to make Ella laugh and take one more dose and when some days we needed 5 doses, we needed any assist we could get. It really does take a village and we are forever grateful to ours.

Ella took her last dose of chemo on February 17, 2022. She is in full remission. She is still a little ball of laughter and of joy and she still wrestles her sister. Her doctors put on her back-to-school forms “No Wrestling.”