Six-year-old Gabby LeDuc woke up on Christmas, in a place she has learned to call home, and discovered that Santa visited. Since being diagnosed with leukemia last May, she has lived in the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane, more than 200 miles from her real home in Kalispell. But even in a different zip code, Santa found her.
And Santa wasn’t the only important Christmas visitor. Gabby’s father Ryan was there too, after making the winter drive from his job in Kalispell to be with his little girl. This is how it is for the LeDuc family these days. Different zip codes. New routines. Spinal taps, chemo and hard times, softened by moments of grace – like a visit from dad and Santa.
But those days appear to be nearing an end. After eight months in Spokane, Gabby could return home to the Flathead later this month or in February, even if her concept of “home” is muddled. The Ronald McDonald House is the only home she’s known through the most traumatic experience of her young life.
“We’ve been here for such a long time she’s going to have a hard time going back,” Gabby’s mother, Kathy, said last week. “We’ve made friends. She loves the kids. She loves the staff in the office.
“But she’s excited to go home so we can be a family. We haven’t been a family since May. My husband gets to come visit but that isn’t the same as being a family.”
The LeDucs brought Gabby to a Kalispell doctor in May for a fever that they hoped wasn’t a sign of strep throat, which had sickened her weeks earlier. Pale and suffering from an upset stomach, she underwent blood tests. The doctor called to say the results were “not favorable,” and much worse than strep throat.
On May 18, Gabby was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a fast-growing cancer of the white blood cells. She was immediately admitted to the hospital and then transported via Life Flight to the Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital in Spokane. Gabby and Kathy have lived in Spokane ever since, with Ryan visiting as often as he can.
Life has been a rollercoaster for the LeDucs since May, the weeks dictated by blood cell counts. When the counts are right, Gabby receives chemotherapy. When they aren’t, she waits. The same criteria will decide when she can come back to Kalispell to live, after which she will still have to return monthly to Spokane for maintenance chemo, Kathy said.
Gabby spends the bulk of many days with a doctor. After her blood is drawn, she hangs out in the waiting room where somebody hired through the hospital sings with her. Music is a comforting distraction. She also does art projects and plays on an iPad.
“There are times that she feels very crummy,” Kathy said. “She’s been a little trooper. You play it day by day, sometimes minute by minute.”
On days she doesn’t have to visit the hospital, Gabby hangs out at the Ronald McDonald House, does schoolwork with a tutor and plays with other kids at the house. Spokane’s Ronald McDonald House has capacity for 22 families, each given their own bedroom and bathroom. Families share a communal kitchen, living room space and outdoor patio.
In addition to her mother and other kids who may be staying at the house, Gabby spends time with her grandma, Kathy’s mother, who has been there throughout their stay. Kathy said the Ronald McDonald House has been a savior.
“I don’t know what I would do without it,” she said.
Colleen Fox, marketing and communications director for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Spokane, said her organization’s goal is to replicate a home atmosphere as much as possible. She said families frequently come from the Flathead and other parts of western Montana.
“We definitely have a strong tie to the Kalispell area,” she said.
Fox had only recently started working at the Ronald McDonald House when the LeDucs arrived and she said they were the first family she got to know well. Kathy and Gabby, she said, have been outgoing and community-minded within the house from the beginning, making friends every step of the way. Fox and Gabby particularly bonded over dogs.
“Any time the therapy dogs come in, Gabby’s the first one there to meet them,” Fox said.
Fox describes Gabby as “so sweet and so warm,” and she’s been amazed by the little girl’s preternatural capacity for compassion.
“She’s always concerned about other people,” Fox said. “She steals the heart of everybody she meets. It’s kind of easy to fall in love with her.”
“We’ll miss her,” she added, “but we want to see her able to go home.”