This Star Won't Go Out

Esther was one of only two students in the entire second grade to clamber up the rope ladder at her elementary school gymnasium and reach the top, proudly winning the honor of writing her name on the ceiling!

“All About Me” Poster FIVE WORDS TO DESCRIBE ME ARE: nice, smart, fun, funny, sweet ONE THING THAT MAKES ME SPECIAL: My middle name is Grace MY FAVORITE BOOK IS: Harry Potter

MY FAVORITE FOOD IS: pizza MY FAVORITE SPORT IS: soccer MY FAVORITE ANIMAL IS: a cat WHEN I HAVE TIME TO MYSELF: I like to read and write WHEN I GROW UP: I want to be an author Third Grade,

KINGSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 2003





NINE YEARS OLD


Baby brother Abraham joined the family the year Esther turned nine. She was present for his birth, and cut his umbilical cord. Her aside to everyone in the delivery room was clear and adamant: “I’m adopting!”

Esther loved the ocean. Even her face seemed made for the sand and sea, breaking out in splashes of freckles at summer’s first light! Her joy is reflected in the following poem she wrote while sitting at the beach.

The sea is very dear to me

Every time I look at it, It looks back at me I love the sea, its waters are blue And the sky is too And the sea is very dear to me If when I grow up and the sea is still there Then I’ll open my eyes and smell the fresh air Because the sea is very dear to me The sea is very calm and that’s why I like it there The sand is brand new and the wind blows in my hair And the sea is very dear to me.





Apple Picking,

NORTHBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, 2003





FIFTH GRADE


From a wall poster labeled, “Interview with the Class,” here are a few of the questions Esther answered about her life as a fifth grader.

Q. What do you like best about yourself?

A. My hair and my freckles, babay!

Q. What would you do if you saw someone being made fun of for stuttering?

A. Ask if they want to sit with me at lunch; play computer games at my house.

Q. Fears?

A. Crashing in a plane, car, boat, or getting hurt while alone at home.

Q. Nicknames?

A. Estee, Star.

Q. Heaven?

A. I think it will be perfect and everything will be cooler than cool!





Allée Centrale,

PARIS, FRANCE, 2004





FRANCE


We moved to France in December 2005 to work with a nonprofit, fulfilling a lifelong dream. The kids dropped into immersion programs in the French public schools, and Esther especially seemed to adjust to all the change with ease. She must have fit right in as one day she came home from gym class—where they’d been skiing in the Alps!—to tell us an amusing story of being pointed out as a “pretty little French girl” by a British family.

Esther and Abe,

ALBERTVILLE, FRANCE, 2006





ESTHER GRACE


After nearly a year, the kids were adapting well to our new life in Europe. But in the midst of the fairy tale came the cancer. Our slim, muscular, energetic, never-tired twelve-year-old found she was fatigued walking even a short distance. She needed to rest, and she began coughing. Fears of pneumonia or TB led to hospital visits, and then the worst news: thyroid cancer.





Sixth Grade, Collège Mignet,

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRANCE, 2006





DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT


by Dr. Jessica Smith

Boston Children’s Hospital, Attending Physician, Endocrinology

In 2006, when she was twelve years old and living in France with her family, Esther started to find herself unable to keep up with her well-traveled family of seven. In retrospect, Esther had noted several weeks of chest pain, cough, and difficulty breathing, particularly upon physical activity. She went to the H?pital de la Timone in Marseille, France, where she was originally thought to have pneumonia. Then, surprisingly her chest X-ray showed fluid and nodules in both lungs.

Esther was immediately admitted to the hospital and after extensive procedures she was diagnosed with metastatic papillary thyroid cancer, the most common type of thyroid cancer in children. That November Esther underwent surgery to remove the thyroid gland and numerous lymph nodes in her neck. After her surgery, she struggled with serious complications which required her to permanently take thyroid hormone, calcium, and vitamin D supplementation. As part of her cancer therapy, Esther received also two doses of radiation therapy.