Behind Alice's Miracle
Staff writer Nancy McLaughlin has worked on this incredible story about Alice Lawrence for months. As you can imagine, it was touch and go for a while. I asked Nancy to take us behind the scenes. Her report:
"Julie Peeples caught me between assignments. There was going to be a fundraiser for a woman from the Sudan who had no money and was diagnosed with leukemia. Because of her gene pool, her donor would likely have to come from the Sudan. It was late and the person who was supposed to have passed the message didn't. I could only write a brief giving basic information on the fundraiser, but I got it into the paper. She thanked me but told me I really needed to meet Alice in person.
"I was intrigued because a whole community of health providers -- the doctors and nurses at the Moses Cone Regional Cancer Center -- had fallen in love with her. 'We've got to do something,' her oncologist, Dr. Kalsoom Khan, kept hearing over and over again. It spilled over into the community when the hospital chaplain asked Julie, her minister, if the fund-raiser could be held at the church. In the end Muslims, Christians and Jews worked to get Alice's brother, who hadn't seen her in nearly 6 years but was a match, here. It required the intervention of Sen. Elizabeth Dole's office (her staffer Bob Meek, in the Charlotte, caught the passion) to get the brother into the country.
"Khan wrote a check to help pay what Medicaid wouldn't for tissue testing; she would have paid it all but others pitched in. Khan's oncology nurse, who barely knew Alice but had been smitten, agreed to take the sickly woman into her home, even before they knew if she would ever get well again, before they knew if one of Alice's siblings would be a match, and if they could get him/her here. Joan Delk, a divorced mother of three who works three jobs, has had to be responsible for Alice's day-to-day survival, although a nonprofit in High Point helped her get food stamps and eventually a small disability check, though none of that money goes to Delk. She won't take it.
"Anyway, I met Alice, and within 5 minutes of being in a room with her, I knew what people meant. She has this special something about her -- something that lights up a room. She is smart, witty, humble, and faithful to God's will. One of the reasons I think people love her is because she is refreshing. She sees all the little things as blessings, and she cares about others, even when she's in the midst of chemo.
"After feeling bad about not being able to do a whole lot more before the fund raiser, I told Peeples and others I wanted to follow what happened next. Much later, that included waiting for Alice's brother to arrive. Photographer Kim Walker and I spent hours at the airport on March 31, for a plane that never came. This is when Kim got passionate about following Alice, too. We both came back the next day when the plane was again scheduled to arrive. We have burned up the road between Greensboro and Winston-Salem, where Alice would get treatment. Only one of us -- Kim -- could get in the room when doctors extracted bone marrow from Jimmy and during Alice's last radiation visit, but we were otherwise there from the time they checked into the hospital to the time Alice came home. Actually, we were there when Delk picked the two of them up.
"We were given access to doctors, to procedures -- I was truly amazed. Of course, that meant lots of trips to Baptist, while keeping up with other work. There were language barriers -- in two hours of visiting I would sometimes leave not thinking I had gotten a lot done. Because there was as much up as down, we would hear that she wasn't doing well and we would race to be there to chronicle what was going on -- and that meant late nights at Baptist. But I would do it over again in a heartbeat.
"We saw Alice when she had 100 white cells in her body and we saw her with 10,000. We saw her lifeless, and we saw her dancing to music. We saw her praying over the bag of bone marrow, asking God that his will be done.
"Kim and I often visited Alice separately, depending on our schedules. Lots of times we had to wear gowns and gloves. But once Alice was put in isolation and without really knowing what was the problem, we put on gowns and gloves and face masks. I remember thinking, what am I taking home to my daughter? But we followed procedures like the doctors. Anyway, it ended up being nothing. But it was one of those times when I had to be really careful.
"I am so in love with this story because of the community of people who could have turned away, but decided to do whatever needed to be done to help -- Khan and bone marrow specialist Istvan Molnar of Baptist, who even consulted an immigration attorney, to help speed up the process; Terry Moore-Painter, who stepped up for the fund-raiser, Joan Delk. The money raised in the fundraiser went to Alice's medical care.
"In the end, I hope Alice's story touches people's hearts. I know it did mine."