The winner of last week’s LOCAL Fan Friday giveaway gave one little girl a very special valentine.
When Joelle Daddino of Yaphank got the call that she’d won the Valentine’s Day prize, a bouquet of flowers, teddy bear, and chocolates from Jeanne Scott of Landscape Adventure in Riverhead, she decided she wanted to give back.
Turning to Facebook, Daddino put the call out to North Fork locals, asking for suggestions about someone who might be facing challenges and need a ray of sunshine in their lives.
And it was then, she said, that strangers came together to make one little girl’s Valentine’s Day — and birthday — a day to remember.
For Morgan West of Cutchogue, who just turned six on February 11, life has not been easy: Morgan was diagnosed on September 16, 2011 at the age of two-and-a-half with a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, or DIPG, an inoperable brainstem tumor. She is currently being treated at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where she receives radiation treatment and continues to take a daily oral clinical drug. There is currently no known cure for DIPG.
Soon after posting about her wish to brighten someone’s day, Daddino began receiving suggestions, beginning with a little girl who’s in Morgan’s class. From there, a community came together, suggesting Morgan, and working together to make sure Morgan got her surprise, which was delivered on her birthday, according to her mom Nikki West.
A whole group of strangers, from the first little girl, to friends Daddino had met at work or her homeschool group, led her to Morgan’s grandfather, Dan West, who knew the florist. “I happened to be the name that won, the rest was the community from Wading River to Cutchogue. People just connecting the dots,” she said.
Scott even sent Morgan an extra-large bouquet with some surprise balloons, Daddino added. Others in Cutchogue helped pinpoint Morgan’s house and reached out to her mom on Facebook. “A great community of people pulled together for Morgan,” she said.
Nothing made her little girl happier than the surprise delivery on her birthday, West said. “She was thrilled. She thought it was great. The flowers are gorgeous and she sleeps with the teddy bear every night.”
The gift was another example of the loving, supportive community who have embraced her family during their darkest hours, West said.
Reflecting on her little girl’s illness, West said, “It’s terminal. There is no cure.” Learning her daughter’s prognosis, she said, was “absolutely devastating.”
At first, West said, she thought she was imagining things when Morgan’s right eye seemed to be crossing. “I would happen so fast, I was convinced for a week that it really wasn’t happening,” she said. Then one night while making dinner, she told her husband Adam to look at Morgan’s eye. “It was completely crossed,” she said. “Then he told me that he’d been noticing it, too.”
Initially, West thought her daughter would only need glasses. “Imagine, I cried because I thought she’d need glasses.”
After an MRI, they learned the truth. Told at first that their beautiful baby would have no more than two years to live, the Wests, who have another daughter, Hunter, and an infant son, Wyatt, went on a mission for hope. “They told us that she could have radiation and that we should make her comfortable and prepare for the worst,” she said. “As a parent, it’s just the last thing you expect to hear.”
Searching for answers, the West family found St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “They were the first hospital to offer us some sort of hope,” West said. “It’s a wonderful hospital. They don’t care about insurance. They just asked me about Morgan.”
Bringing their little girl to Memphis was difficult, West stayed with her daughter while her husband went back home to care for Hunter, who’d just started kindergarten.
After undergoing radiation and a trial drug for two years, Morgan has “defied the odds,” West said. “She’s our little miracle. St. Jude has taken such good care of her. She’s such a fighter, and such a strong person.”
The tumor is stable right now, but it will always be there. “That’s the best we can ask for,” West said. Morgan still goes for treatment at St. Jude every three months.
Morgan, who started kindergarten this year, is a little girl who loves school, playing with baby dolls, and running outside with her friends and cousins.
Watching their daughter start school was something the Wests never thought they’d be blessed to witness. “Everything we do with her is another milestone that we never thought we would ever get to see. She’s doing fantastic.”
Despite their challenges, West said Morgan faces each day with a smile and her father’s sense of humor. “She makes us laugh every day,” she said.
When asked how she and her husband face the unthinkable and go about their daily routine, West said it isn’t easy. “A few months before she was diagnosed, we were watching a show about St. Jude. I remember sitting on my couch crying. I said I could never do it, how do you have a child with cancer? Then a few months later, I was one of those parents.”
For the first two weeks, West and her husband cried nonstop. “You just feel like getting into bed and never getting out. But when you have kids, you can’t fall apart. You have to pull yourself together and live your life and be happy in front of them. You can’t fall apart. You can’t be crying all the time.”
St. Jude, she said, was filled with other families facing the same challenges and yet, parents were smiling and kids were playing in the halls. “They inspired us. We thought, ‘If you can do this, we can do this, too.’ Our lives will never be normal but we make it as normal as possible.” St. Jude, she added, has become a second family.
The Wests have taken up the cause, participating in a St. Jude Walk, with the Helping Hands 4 Morgan team, raising over $35,000 in three years; they have also spoken at various events. “I really believe in my heart that it’s because of them that Morgan is doing as well as she is. If feels good to be able to give back,” West said.
Morgan, West said, has taught her invaluable life lessons. “She’s taught me to appreciate every day you have and just live life to the fullest, because you never know what tomorrow is going to bring. She’s inspired us. She’s the strongest person I know. She’s my hero.”
To follow Morgan’s progress, go to the Helping Hands 4 Morgan Facebook page or to the family’s blog.
Of the many who came together to make sure the gift arrived at Morgan’s door, West said, “Thank you, to all of you. It’s so sweet of you. It was just fantastic to hear that someone wanted to do that for our child. It’s overwhelming, to have the support in this community from complete strangers, just wanting to do something kind. It’s inspiring. To be a part of it makes me want to be a better person, too.”
