In the hallways of St. Jude, Griffin’s mom realizes no family fights cancer alone
When Jen was weary, questioning whether she could take one more step, the walls of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® urged her on.
November 26, 2024 • 2 min
I’ve walked the equivalent of a marathon in the hallways of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®. Me and thousands of other parents over the decades, pushing strollers and wheelchairs, pulling wagons and IV poles.
It’s a unique gait. We know which corners to hug as the hallways zigzag. We pause for hardly a second at the hand sanitizer dispenser and disinfect our hands without disrupting a single step in our rhythm.
You can sense a bit of hesitation as we move our children toward understood and novel treatments to learn more about what’s making our kids sick, buy additional time — and save their lives.
More than that, in each step, you feel their determination, their resolve ─ and their hope. It’s just one of the contradictory joys of this building. Within these walls, we have had our most haunting and fearful moments. But on this sacred ground, we also have experienced the most hope.
When we are weary, tired and question our strength to continue, whether we can take one more step — the walls urge us on. Hallways lined with artwork created by patients express our purpose: the humor, courage and fortitude of our children. The hope. The plaques etched with the names of people who donate to St. Jude, who built these buildings and pay for everything that happens inside ─ the care, treatment, and research. A comforting reminder that people outside these walls are fighting alongside us.
As we walk these hallways on floors walked by thousands of other parents over the decades, we know don’t walk alone. All of us have the same goal: saving children. A hospital for children with cancer — you’d think it would be a sad place. More often, it is a place of comfort and strength. A place of hope.
Jen’s son Griffin was 2 in November 2019 when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and treated at St. Jude. Griffin, now 7, is in the first grade, loves bulgogi and rice, and wants to be “everything” when he grows up. He returns annually to St. Jude for checkups.
