We Vincents know how to celebrate Memorial Day properly. It’s not an All-American holiday without baseball. So Friday night we headed to Dodger stadium to watch the Dodgers play the Chicago Cubs, with dugout seats provided courtesy of one of my favorite clients. She’s a Cub fan alright! Jordan was very excited about going to a baseball game. She was excited about getting cotton candy. But mostly, she was excited to root for the Cubs.

We unfolded the single sheet of paper and handed Jordan a pen. The nurses looked on curiously. Six menu items were listed. She couldn’t read any of them, but she knew what the big rectangular box meant next to each. If she could check off each of these boxes, she’d earn a reward, and today’s reward was the DVD of High School Musical.

Thread #1: I sit on our patio, clacking away on my laptop. The French doors are open giving me a panoramic view of our living room, which sits behind a perfectly framed proscenium for Jordan. It’s a Friday. A little house music back-beats in the background. I look up from the phosphorescent glow of my screen to see Jordan sashay across the floor. She’s not even looking at me. Her head is tilted balletically, arms extended, rhythm coursing.

I know a girl in Pasadena. She’s got a streak of Ethel Merman in her. Anything you can do she can do better. Nothing stops her. You might slow her down, but you won’t keep her from doing that which she wants. Big, hairy monsters have tried to stop this one. Big monsters with scary names like “cancer,” and “tumor,” and “chemo”. She pays them no mind. Saturday was Lucas’s school carnival.

The brown-haired boy followed her with his puckish brown eyes as she entered the room. In his tiny six-year-old frame he mustered a dose of full-grown Latin charm. He squashed traces of fear with daring, macho bravado and masculine charisma. “I’m not sick,” he asserted. As she climbed into her out-patient bed next to him Jordan grinned wide with her own brand of pride and charm. “Me, neither,” she replied. “I’m kicking cancer’s butt!