Coeur D’Alene Answers Mother’s Cry For Help
Melodie Hewitt apologized for screaming at the doctor last week, but he understood. No one, especially a 9-year-old, wants to hear she has a brain tumor.
The outlook is good. Still, Melodie and her mother, Dawn, clung to each other and cried.
“I had to walk through the fire of losing her,” Dawn says, biting her lower lip. “I watched my mom go from a brain tumor. I thought, ‘Here we go again.’ She’s been my whole life.”
Dawn, 48, was a professional singer who changed her life to raise her daughter. She went into sales, moved to Spokane and then to Coeur d’Alene for Melodie.
When financial struggles wore Dawn down, she would sing with her daughter.
“She really has a very good voice,” Dawn says with a smile.
Melodie, a fourth-grader at Fernan Elementary, fell ill with the flu last September. Months of headaches followed, but Melodie rarely complained. Dawn worked part time and had no health insurance. She gave her daughter Tylenol, as she always had for headaches.
New glasses in February didn’t stop the headaches. Then Melodie’s penmanship fell apart. She told Dawn she was becoming left-handed, that her right hand was weakening. Dawn took her to the doctor.
Two hellish days of self-recrimination followed. Then, Dawn began reaching for help. Everyone was there.
“I started feeling like someone had lifted something off my shoulders,” she says. “This is a good place. I don’t have to keep yelling for help.”
On Thursday , Dawn held Melodie’s hand as the little girl cried on her way to surgery.
Surgeons excised a tumor that filled a quarter of her brain. Tests showed it was benign.
“Everything has a reason and a purpose,” Dawn says. “Somehow, we’ll grow from all this.”
Melodie’s friends have opened a trust fund in her name at West One banks to help Dawn pay medical bills. Donations may be made to any West One branch, account #12-000-413-2610.
Jeans for Joggers
Don’t toss the old Levis. Take them to Sandpoint High where the cross-country team is collecting jeans to raise money. The kids want to run with the country’s top teams this spring in Oregon. Why shouldn’t they?
They need jean jackets, too. What they can’t sell to a wholesaler (who sells them to Japan), they’ll offer to the community at a sale in late April.
The collection ends April 7. Call Coach Cheryl Klein at 263-3034 with questions.
Teen Docs
Here’s one for the college application: teen volunteer at Kootenai Medical Center. The politically correct no longer call them candy-stripers, even though they still wear red and white.
If you’re wondering how to get job experience, KMC is your answer. You can help in the lab, kitchen, with patients - you name it. The orientation program is at 2 p.m., March 26, in the classrooms. Call 666-2510.
Car Classics
Years ago, I wrote about a Rathdrum man’s obsession for his Mustang. He kept his car’s engine so clean it glistened like glass. He lived to parade that car through town with the cruise crowd on weekends.
Do you have a prize car you cherish? Or an ancient truck that’s transported your family through three generations and still runs? This is your chance to crow. Send me up to 300 words and a photo of your honored vehicle and earn a “Close to Home” surprise if they’re published.
Speed those car tales to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 83814; FAX to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.