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Penelope Jane London
July 6, 2002 - May 19, 2007
Welcome to Penelope's Web Page. It has been created to keep friends and family updated about Penelope and her courageous battle against n-Myc Amplified Stage IV Neuroblastoma (the worst of the worst), which was diagnosed on November 14th, 2003, when she was 16 months old. Neuroblastoma is rare and aggressive childhood cancer of specialized nerve cells called neural crest cells, cells that are involved in the development of the nervous system and other tissues. (For more information about Neuroblastoma, please check the National Cancer Institute's web site at www.cancer.gov/)
Unfortunately, Penelope is currently battling yet another relapse. She has relapsed several times before, each time more aggressively than the last, but amazingly she has been able to beat the beast back into remission or quasi-remission. We're praying for that to happen again this time.
Before her second relapse, she had already endured extensive rounds of multiple chemotherapies, a bone marrow transplant, a 10 hour surgical resection of her tumor, 3 weeks of radiation treatment, 6 months of Accutane, two additional rounds of chemotherapy, two intensive MIBG radiation treatments, countless blood and platelet transfusions, another stem cell transplant, six rounds of experimental oral chemotherapy, and additional experimental treatments. Since her second relapse, she has started treatment again. At this stage, most of the treatments are experimental, and they include oral and i.v. chemotherapy and the many side effects thereof.
We have been told that there is no cure for relapsed neuroblastoma. But she is a warrior and our immediate hope is to get the disease under control and to beat it back into remission.
Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers in the months ahead. She is our hero!!! Catherine, John, Isabelle (13), Penelope (4) and Oliver (3).
If you would like to make a donation to help find a cure for neuroblastoma, it can be made to The Penelope and Sam Fund. Please visit http://vermontcancer.org/index.php?page=penelope-and-sam for more information. Thank you.
INFORMATION
Journal
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 9:29 AM CDT Can it really be? Can it really be two years? Can it really be two years that our beautiful girl has been gone? It is real and unfathomable at the same time. The pain of her absence pierces what is left of our hearts.
Penelope was the strongest life force I have ever felt. She practically glowed. No person I have ever met was more radiant, beautiful, courageous, or loving. To know her was to have your soul penetrated by pure goodness. Life was her canvas for us to watch her display such love and joy and beauty. And this was no empty canvas. It was a rainbow of colors, of life, of energy, of love. What a privelege to be able to say we knew her. What an honor to say I was and always will be her Daddy.
Penelope brightened every room she entered. I can see her now, walking through a door, making contact with my eyes and then seeing the corners of her mouth rise as that amazing smile crossed her face. Maybe we would play or laugh or talk. It did not matter. It was all perfection to me. Her thirst for life permeated her every move. She always wanted to play, to learn, to have fun, to be made to laugh (oh that huge belly laugh!). What I would do to feel her in my arms one more time, to kiss her soft cheek, to tell her how much I love her.
Today i remember Penelope riding bicycles with Oliver in circles in our living room. I remember her and Oliver flying through the air as I threw them on the pillows when we played "boom game". I remember her sitting in the bathroom as Isabelle put big girl makeup on her. And perhaps most of all I rmemeber her lying on Catherine's shoulder, one thumb in her mouth, the other hand stretched across Catherine's face with her fingers twirling Catherine's long hair. It was the safest and most comforting place in the world for Penelope...in her mother's arms.
Today I also think about jumping in the ocean waves while holding my daughter's hand. Penelope and I used to stand holding hands right where the waves crashed. We used to scream at the ocean and laugh and say "We are not scared of you! You are only water!" Well if Penelope was here today she would tell us not to think about this day. She would tell us it was not a good day for her or our family and not a day that should envelop us with sadness. Penelope used to lecture me towards the end of her life when she would see me filled with sadness. She would tell me "stop crying daddy. I am happy so you be happy!" I am trying my beautiful princess. I am really trying. We are all trying. We just love and miss you more than words can ever express.
Thank you for teaching us all so much about life. Thank you for showing us how to enjoy each day. Thank you for showing us what love is all about. Thank you for being the most wonderful sister to Baba and Oliver. Thank you for being the most wonderful child a parent could ever have.
We love you always Penelope. We love you super tons!!! Our hearts will always be connected!!!
Love Oliver, Baba, Mommy and Daddy
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