LAKE STEVENS — It comes before swimming, camping and even riding dirt bikes.
What Haylie Nordstrom looks most forward to doing when she gets the upper hand in her battle with leukemia is going back to church and hanging out with her youth group.
She misses the services, sharing her faith and the camaraderie of her peers at Marysville Nazarene Church.
For now, her contact is in short intervals because her immune system has been weakened as she fights the disease.
“She is all about her friends,” said her father, Jason Nordstrom. “The hardest part for her is she hasn’t been able to do much. She loves her youth group at church.”
And her church clearly cares about her.
A week ago, it hosted a benefit concert on her behalf. The event featured Christian musical artists Nathaniel Chapman and Brothers in Arms. Haylie was well enough to stop by for a short time.
It felt good to be back.
“I know that people are there and praying,” Haylie said.
It was one of several fundraisers that have been staged or in the works for her.
A friend of her mom organized a Zumba-thon. Adam’s Northwest Bistro and Brewery is scheduled to host a dinner and auction at 6 p.m. April 25 at the restaurant at 104 N Lewis St. A yard sale is being planned for May.
Haylie attended Zion Lutheran School through the eighth grade. This year she enrolled as a freshman at Cavelero Mid High in Lake Stevens. She felt welcome there in the short time before she got sick.
The principal calls often to check on how she is doing. Tutors come by three times a week. Hundreds of classmates wearing green, her favorite color, wished her well in a video posted online.
And then there is Brian Koreski, her guitar teacher. He secretly arranged with Haylie’s mom, Brenda Nordstrom, to have her school band play on their front lawn in the pouring rain.
“The school has been wonderful,” Brenda said.
Haylie agrees with her parents’ description: She is a mix of tomboy and girly-girl with an inner toughness that has served her well in her fight with cancer.
In the weeks before the diagnosis, her back ached. It was a worrisome time, not knowing what was ailing her. Her parents pushed hard for answers, wrangling with the insurance company to get her a MRI.
They sensed the situation was dire, even before they knew why.
Jason learned to trust his wife’s maternal instinct long ago.
Haylie was born two months premature. She likely would have been stillborn had Brenda not insisted they get to the hospital where doctors discovered a clot in the placenta.
Fifteen years later, Haylie was diagnosed with cancer on Christmas Eve. Doctors determined she had a rare form of leukemia called Burkitt’s that has attacked her blood and bone marrow.
As extended family arrived to celebrate the holiday, word came from the hospital that Haylie needed to return right away.
Today the family keeps their bags packed by the front door.
The disease ate away at Haylie’s bones like termites to wood.
Treatment has included a regimen of pills and chemotherapy injections in the spine. There are frequent trips to the hospital in Seattle as well as blood tests and transfusions.
“She has been a fighter her whole life,” her father said. “She doesn’t complain.”
She took in stride the loss of her hair. She has a wig she seldom wears. She has endured the weakness and nausea.
The hardest part was the isolation in the hospital given her gregarious nature.
“I just roll with everything,” she said.
Jason Nordstrom runs a small business installing heating and air conditioning systems. His family traditionally has been the one to help others. Being on the receiving end was something he never imagined, until his daughter became sick.
“It’s humbling,” he said. “It is just unchartered territory to have all this love and support coming at you from all directions.”
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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