My Love,My Life + 5: gone too soon....but never forgotten

Cherish Danyell Jennings

Born April 27th 1989

Earned her wings Dec 20th 1991

she was 2 1/2 years old

Life sometimes is very hard to understand ,someone so little, so fragile, yet doomed from the time she was born. My baby sister Cherish, she was so tiny and cute, little fat cheeks and white hair.....

I remember thinking to myself, she is cute but I really wanted a brother, I already have a sister. Well mom brought her home and I decided I would like having a another baby sister. She was so quiet and happy all the time. Then when she was about 3 or 4 weeks old she became ill with an ear infection, the ear infections continued accompanied by high fevers. This continued for almost a year until my mother threatened to take her private records to another doctor.

The doctors at the Claremore Indian Hospital, decided she needed tubes in her ears, they referred her to Saint Francis Hospital where Dr. Kirkpatrick was able to find out in a few hours what the Indian Hospital had overlooked for almost a year. Cherish had Acute myeloid leukemia (AML). AML is cancer that starts inside bone marrow, the soft tissue inside bones that helps form blood cells. The cancer grows from cells that would normally turn into white blood cells.

This type of cancer is very rare in people under the age of 60.

My parents were told she had 8 months to live. Cherish underwent numerous bone marrow extractions, chemotherapy,

and radiation. She was a very famous little girl at the hospital, she was the first child in Oklahoma to have this rare Leukemia at her age. She was also the youngest child to receive a portacath.

A Portacath is a device that is used to make administration of chemotherapy easier, the device is placed under the skin, in upper part of the chest. It has a small reservoir that is connected to a major vein inside the chest.

At one point Cherish was said to be in remission but, they spoke too soon, she went in to find out that the cancer was back and more aggressive. The make a wish foundation stepped in and sent us to Disney World in Florida, It was a bittersweet vacation. It was the last vacation we would ever spend as a whole family.

We had so much fun in Disney World, she was happy, really happy. She met Minnie Mouse (her most favorite)

She rode rides like all the other kids, ate the same food all the other kids did.She was a child for once. And she deserved to be there having fun. Running crazy.......and then she needed a drink, went to take a drink out of a straw and busted her lip, that meant a whole night at the hospital in Florida on her vacation.

She was the most beautiful baby I think I have ever seen, She loved life even though it was short she made the best of it,
Cherish knew she was going to Heaven and she was ready.On December 20th 1991 Cherish left us to go home and forever be in our hearts showing us that no matter what life hands us God will be there through it all.

Ironically Westin my youngest son became ill right before his first birthday, I was absolutely terrified that Westin would have AML. He was sent from Claremore Indian Hospital to Saint Francis children's hospital. I was in the room with Westin and none other than Dr. KirkPatrick came in the room my heart sank. I was for sure Westin had AML. I looked at him and told him I knew who he was, that he was my sisters doctor many years ago(its been 20 years), he asked who my sister was and I said Cherish, I didn't have to give her last name, he remembered her, everyone remembered her, (Westin has the same nurses Cherish did). I was told by Dr. K and the nurses informed me that they were so stumped with finding a way to help Cherish that after she passed they had found a way to prolong chidrens' lives that across their paths with AML. They told me it was all for her, she had been the reason to try so hard to find a way to help the other kids, because they were so touched be my sister, they all fell in love with her, I feel my sister was sent here from God to help find a cure, that was her purpose, She had a GREAT purpose in life, she is saving lives by the way she touched others lives.