For Courtney “Coco” Johnson, 15, the last 10 months have been very hard.
She had been diagnosed with cancer in June, just a day after graduating from eighth grade. She had been suffering for leg pain for a week and tests subsequently discovered she had an Ewing sarcoma which is a type of tumor low in her left femur.
She underwent two surgeries and more than a dozen chemotherapy sessions that required extended hospital stays. She studied at home and missed her first year in high school and her family has worn masks so that she doesn’t get sicker.
“There was a lot of time that I just wasn’t feeling well for many days at a time,” Coco, from Pasadena, said.
Danz, her mother, said Coco has displayed remarkable resiliency throughout.
“She really didn’t let it get her down,” Danz said. “We’ve had some low moments, but she never felt sorry for herself. She hung in there and did it with a smile on her face.”
On March 24, Coco had her final chemotherapy session and left Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) for the last time.
Such occasions would usually be celebrated by ringing a bell with lots of well-wishers on hand. But due to the coronavirus outbreak, patients may only have one visitor at a time. In fact, Coco would need to take extra care for the next six months because of her compromised immune system.
So with only her immediate family and some staff to see her off, Coco went home from the hospital.
But Danz felt bad that her daughter would miss out on celebrating such a momentous moment and had shared her frustrations with her friend, Sonia Singla, a few days before. “I just felt like she’s gone through this whole thing and we’ve been talking about having a party,” Danz said. “I felt so bad for her.”
So Singla thought of a “reverse parade,” that would involve a couple of Coco’s loved ones driving to their street while remaining in their cars and wave as Coco arrived home.
But more than just her loved ones showed up.
As they turned into their street, Danz pulled out her cellphone expecting just a few well-wishers. The whole family was floored by the huge collection of people in their cars, with proper social distancing, who brought signs, streamers, balloons, and posters to celebrate Coco’s big moment.
It turns out that Singla had texted a few friends who, in turn, texted their own friends, until the whole neighborhood came together.
“When we turned the corner, it was very emotional for all of us,” Danz said.
Waving back at all the well-wishers, Coco could be seen sobbing with joy.
“I was just completely overwhelmed,” Coco said. “I wasn’t expecting anything, and I was just so surprised and grateful that everyone showed up to celebrate me.”
“It really hit me at that moment that everyone was there for me,” she said.
Danz was also touched especially since a lot of these people had been helping them through the past 10 months.
“We’ve been pretty stoic for, honestly, 10 months and it was just the biggest emotional release to have her ring that bell and then turn the corner and see all these people who’ve been there for us,” she said.
Replaced!