The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXX

Jisaura Perez
Debra Mendes, Teacher
Normandin Middle School, New Bedford, MA
These past few years haven’t been easy for me. In fact, 2019 was the worst year
of my life. My mom passed away. She was very sick, but always had the love to
help others. My mom was a person who wouldn’t listen to doctors or even take
care of herself. When my mom was getting very sick, I wouldn’t go to school
because I was afraid that she would die or fall when I wasn’t there. I lived in
constant fear. My mom was 46 when she died on the floor of our house in
front of me. She died from heart problems.
My mom was a smoker, and this is why her health was so bad. She wouldn’t get
better because she didn’t want to stop smoking. I wished for her to have the
courage to stop smoking, and in 2019 she finally stopped.
Let me tell you what happened before she died. One day we were at the store
and my Mom was shivering from the cold and shaking all over. She had to be
rushed to the hospital, and they told her that it was an infection. I felt so sad
because she couldn’t come home. Then it went from bad to worse. My mom
was in a coma for many weeks. She had to stay in the hospital with a bunch
of machines hooked up to her. They found out that the infection she had
could spread and really harm her. My family and I had to go to these special
meetings about her health and what they were going to do next for her. These
meetings were not easy because there was news that was good and bad.
After she came out of the coma, she started to go to different hospitals for
different treatments. In May of 2019, she finally came home. Then on the
22nd of May, she died. I was devastated. I just could not believe that this had
happened. When I returned to school, my teachers were so sad, but they
supported me in all kinds of ways. They said, “Are you okay?”, “Do you want
to take the day off?”, “How can we help you?”, “Do you need anything?”
The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond
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