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After its loss, family gives back to St. Jude
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Shortly after touring the hospital, the Canfield teen was back as a patient.
By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CANFIELD — The Avery family didn't know what to expect, but touring the large pediatric treatment and research hospital amazed them.
"We were just so impressed with the hospital and everything they did there," said Wendy Avery of Canfield about St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. "It was like nowhere we'd ever been before."
In her role as director of the Growing Place, a preschool on Raccoon Road in Austintown, Wendy held an annual trike-a-thon to benefit the children's hospital.
In April 2005, for the first time in her seven years as director of the preschool, Wendy received an invitation to attend a volunteer appreciation day at St. Jude, which is the third-largest health-care charity in the U.S. Her family of five — including husband Steve, sons Nick and Josh, and daughter Alisha — decided to make the trek to Memphis as part of their summer vacation.
They spent two days in June 2005 visiting with staff and touring the facility. Murals cover the walls and clouds adorn the ceiling, Wendy said, and the staff treats patients like family.
Nick's comment
"I don't want to ever have cancer," 14-year-old Nick said as they were leaving, "but if I do, this is where I want to go."

Waiting for blood test results six months later, those words rang in his mother's ears.
Nick's illness began innocently enough in November 2005, Wendy said. He was having migraines, but that wasn't unusual for him. He'd been having them since he was 4. Participating in a school play and a church play, as well as entering high school, explained why he seemed rundown, she added.
A month later, he still wasn't feeling well and became feverish. He was given antibiotics at an emergency room, but showed no improvement. Wendy knew something wasn't right.
It took six days for local doctors to reach a firm diagnosis because leukemia wasn't yet present in his blood, but Wendy was already in Memphis in her mind when they found the cancer in his bone marrow.
"I think the decision was made for us [to go to St. Jude]," she said. "Because if we had done something else, I would have always wondered if we did the right thing. But there's no doubt that we were supposed to be there."
Within a few days they left for St. Jude.
Though Nick responded well to the intense chemotherapy he endured, and was able to go home in May of this year, a backache just a few months later was the first clue the cancer had returned.
Going home
Back at St. Jude, doctors gave Nick the choice of starting treatment again immediately or going home for a few days first. Nick chose to go home.
"And that was the best thing, looking back," Wendy said. "If he hadn't come home, I would have always regretted that." For five days, family and friends flowed in and out of the house, laughing and joking with Nick.
When the family returned to the hospital with Nick, they were happy to be with their St. Jude family again despite being in anguish because the cancer was again invading Nick's body.
The six months Wendy and Nick had already spent in Memphis, living in hospital-provided housing, were difficult but also a good experience, Wendy said. It was hard being away from her other children and husband, and tough when Nick was sick from the chemo or feverish.
But, "as hard as it was, there were so many good things," Wendy shared. "His life was good, even through the leukemia."
While at St. Jude, Nick went to school and took guitar lessons. He made many friends. And, Wendy said, it was a special time for mother and son, as they worked together to get him well.
Lost his battle
A few days after returning to St. Jude, in early August, however, Nick suffered a subdural hematoma, a collection of blood just below the outermost lining of the brain. Doctors do not know why. Despite emergency surgery, Nick died less than two weeks later on Aug. 25, with his parents by his side.
"As a mom, I guess you kind of know some things," Wendy said. "I knew that he wasn't going to come home with us. It was just too much that happened."
Now the family needs to learn to live as four instead of five. Part of that healing is raising funds for St. Jude.
At St. Jude, no child is denied treatment because of a family's ability to pay. Freedom from the financial burden allows parents to focus on the real issue: seeing that their child gets well, Wendy said.
On Monday, the Avery family will be at Chili's Grill & Bar in Boardman. The Dallas, Texas-based business will donate 100 percent of its restaurant sales that day to St. Jude. To date, Chili's has raised more than $5.5 million for St. Jude through participating company-owned and franchised locations.
"The hospital and everybody there just means so much to us," Wendy said. "It's part of Nick to want to be part of this, helping to raise money for St. Jude, and I want to continue that for him."