Helping aunt changed Oaks grad’s outlook

It’s difficult to believe Sarah Gotzian, 18, when she says she’s not compassionate.

After all, she spent countless hours, morning, noon and night, helping her aunt, Jill Gotzian, who had muscular dystrophy. As her illness progressed, Jill Gotzian needed help with pretty much everything, from personal hygiene to meals and getting in and out of bed. She died on March 1, and Sarah Gotzian spoke at her memorial service about how much helping her aunt taught her.

“I’m not a compassionate person just up front,” said Sarah Gotzian, who is this year’s outstanding graduate from The Oaks Classical Christian Academy. “It’s more like I had to learn compassion. Since I was 5 years old, I helped my aunt.”

Gotzian said she struggled with her role as family caregiver when she was younger.

“I would complain because my friends didn’t have to do anything like that,” Gotzian said. “They could just go and do whatever. Now, I’m so glad my heart changed – it’s been a blessing to help my Aunt Jill.”

And it’s been humbling.

“Toward the end, she was completely helpless,” said Gotzian, pausing. “She had to put all pride aside and ask for help with everything. That was a big lesson to me.”

Gotzian has been at The Oaks since third grade, and she’s loved it there. She doesn’t have a favorite subject but said Christian literature has been her favorite class this year.

She’s maintained a 3.9 grade-point average throughout high school, an accomplishment she shrugs off.

“I think getting high grades is just my personality,” she said.

And it’s not like all she does is homework: She loves art and paints “a little bit,” and she’s the team captain for the varsity volleyball team. She’s been a counselor at Camp Spalding, a job she really enjoyed.

“Last time I had a group of fifth- and sixth-grade girls. They sure kept me busy,” said Gotzian, laughing. “I really love counseling the younger kids, but we also do cooking and cleaning and stuff like that.”

She is enrolled at Biola University, a private evangelical Christian college located just outside Los Angeles. She’ll be moving there in late summer – quite a change from Spokane Valley.

“I’m not too worried about it,” she said, smiling. “Actually, I’m really looking forward to it.”

Gotzian plans to study business and perhaps kinesiology, with the ultimate goal of becoming a physical therapist.

Lynn Gibson, director of college counseling at The Oaks, said this about Gotzian:

“She is poised, eloquent and hardworking. She will forever be remembered by her classmates as the one who took care of her Aunt Jill, every day, for as long as they can remember, and did so with kindness and generous spirit.”