Joanna made a wish and prayer that came true

Joseph Yusaitis thought it was a secret that he prays over his teenage daughter every night.

But Joanna Yusaitis feels her dad's hand on her shoulder as she falls asleep and doesn't mind at all.

Four years after recovering from Hodgkin's disease, she understands her parents' need to keep reassuring themselves that she's okay.

Disease found

Joanna was nine when her mom noticed a lump in her neck that "didn't feel right to me," Celeste Yusaitis remembered.

A biopsy revealed that the lump was an early stage of cancer. Joanna, just about to enter fifth grade, didn't even know what that word meant.

"I was overwhelmed," she told The Evangelist, recalling how her days abruptly changed from ballet lessons and lacrosse practice to doctors' appointments, four months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

God and chemo

Joanna was incredulous. The year before, she had donated her waist-length hair to Locks of Love, which provides wigs for cancer patients; now she was losing her hair from chemo.

Every Friday, she underwent treatment; every weekend was spent getting sick from it, sleeping and trying to recover enough to go to school on Monday.

"I prayed a lot: 'God, just get me through this so I'll be my normal self again,'" said Joanna, whose family are parishioners of Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Watervliet/Green Island. "God was always there; He was always listening."

Supportive friends

She found the strength to stay in good spirits; her friends supported her by sponsoring a "bandanna day" at school and treating her the same way they always had.

Those friends even claim they turned to her for an emotional boost when they were in bad moods themselves.

"I'm known for making people laugh," Joanna remarked, confessing that her words often come out in funnier ways than she intends, cracking up her classmates.

Wish time

In 2003, Joanna was surprised to be offered the chance to have a wish granted by the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which helps "enrich the human experience" for children with life-threatening illnesses.

Joanna asked for a long-desired trip to Disney World in Florida, but the foundation went further than that: She also got a "bon voyage" party with her friends and a Disney cruise that stopped at a resort in the Bahamas where teen stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen filmed one of their movies.

"It was everything I thought I'd get and more," she declared, beaming at the memory.

Joanna particularly enjoyed meeting Mickey Mouse and a host of other Disney characters -- although she still remembered her fear at trying a free-fall waterslide during the trip: "I couldn't even breathe!"

Healthier days

In the two years since then, Joanna said, "I've gone back to my normal self, only a little taller."

Now 13 and in eighth grade at St. Ambrose School in Latham, she just celebrated her third year cancer-free. This month, she'll undergo tests to make sure the disease hasn't returned.

She has also grown up in other ways.

"This definitely made me stronger, less afraid of things," she said of her illness. "There's a whole world out there! There shouldn't be anything to stop you: If you want to travel, travel; if you want to play a sport, play a sport; if you want to do music, do music."

Second chance

A few weeks ago, Joanna took her own advice: Make-a-Wish called to offer her the opportunity to be an "ambassador" to the foundation's 25th anniversary at Disneyland in California, and she jumped at the chance.

"It was just like a second wish!" she noted.

One of only 75 children from around the world chosen as ambassadors, the teen spent a week attending celebration dinners with Disney characters, riding on parade floats and going to concerts.

"There were kids from London and Belgium," she told The Evangelist. But the sight was sobering to her: "Some kids looked like they were still going through [treatment]. I thought I'd had it bad, but looking at them....Some of them must have been going through this since they were 10, and [now] they were 15 or 16."

Although she tried to encourage young children she met who had serious illnesses, Joanna has a hard time now being around people who are sick. She's especially squeamish about needles. Instead, she hopes to use her affinity for children as a first- or second-grade teacher someday. She enjoys helping pre-kindergartners at her school to play music.

Stronger family

Joanna's parents said that watching her struggle to beat cancer has increased their faith.

"She was so strong through it all," Mr. Yusaitis remarked. "She never complained, not once. She went to church every week."

The family still goes to a healing Mass every year to thank God for Joanna's recovery.

"Why would you forget God when He's been so gracious? He's given her back her life," said Mrs. Yusaitis.

Joanna said she feels close to God, too. Surviving cancer "made me think there's a God out there who loves you so much," she said.

Back in swing

However, she hasn't spent much time this year thinking about cancer. Joanna has restarted ballet lessons and acted in school plays.

She informed The Evangelist that she has far too much homework to do these days and that she's chosen Catholic Central in Troy as the high school she'll enter next year.

"There's no stopping. You just keep going," she said firmly. "Savor every moment of your life."

Worried by wish

When Mrs. Yusaitis heard that her daughter qualified to have a wish granted, she initially felt nervous: She thought the Make-a-Wish Foundation granted only final wishes for terminally-ill children.

"I thought there was something the doctors weren't telling me!" she remembered.

The Yusaitises soon learned that any child with a life-threatening medical condition can get help from the charity. Today, Joanna still feels a bond with Make-a-Wish; she attends their picnics and galas, and even participated in a local commercial for the foundation.

Learn more about Make-a-Wish at www.wish.org. (KB)

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