An Education

She has a mind for numbers. Especially dates. Dec. 23, 2005: Grandmother died; Nov. 18, 2011: Uncle died; Nov. 14, 2014: tore ACL; June 7, 2015 at 4:30 p.m.: Will graduate from high school.

Since early childhood, growing up on the harshest streets of southern Oak Cliff, meticulous organization — of drawers, closet, calendar — was how Leona Michael-Makelfa coped with chaos. At age 5, she developed a rare salivary gland cancer. Surgery saved her life, but left a scar on her neck. Due to a skin condition, the scar grew into a massive, protruding keloid. Her classmates teased her.

“Kids at school said I had worms in my neck,” she recalls.

Today Leona is beautiful with deep wide eyes, long eyelashes and an athletic physique. Aside from the discoloration on her neck — noticeable when she points it out — her skin is clear.

But self-consciousness and timidity about her looks has plagued her. She lived with her grandmother because her mom drove a taxi and worked long hours. “My grandmother was my rock. She was the one who helped me when going through the surgeries, when I felt hideous.”

Her father left when she was 2. “He has his own family, haven’t seen him in years,” she says.

But her grandmother died suddenly, shockingly at age 50. “It broke me and my family, and I had to start my life all over. She kept the family together. When she died, everything went wrong.”

Leona ate her pain and weighed 156 pounds by the time she was in fifth grade. She moved in with her mother, who had adopted the child of a former boyfriend and worked 12-hour shifts most days.

At Forest Meadow Junior High, Leona acted out. “Got in fights with boys, that kind of thing.” Leona’s mom lost her job and married a man who had twin sons.

“So it went from me, my mom and a little sister to having a stepfather and two brothers,” Leona says. “This made my struggle worse.”

Drugs were always around, she says. It was part of life in her circles. She dabbled in such things herself, she says. “For a little while, it became my coping mechanism.”

An uncle, one among a close-knit group of relatives, used heroin. He died in 2011 of an overdose.

Leona loves her family, but she wants a different life. Things started to change when she picked up basketball.

“I wasn’t the best player, but I loved it. I started to lose weight and become more confident.”

She endured radiation and regular steroid injections to treat the scar tissue — a grueling regimen, but it worked. During her freshman and sophomore years she flip-flopped between being the ostensibly ideal student — a member of AVID (a college preparation program) and starter on the basketball team — and slipping back into depression and self-medication.

She had always maintained good grades, but during the last two years her efforts sharpened. In the basketball team and AVID, she found a family. Razor focus on sports and academics kept her mind off the pain and anarchy that was her personal life. She tutored other kids in her spare time, and she worked as a teacher’s aide for AVID teacher Pamela Gayden.

“I love that girl,” Gayden says. “I didn’t want any student but her for the job. She is organized and hardworking, but more importantly, I can trust her she understands integrity, honesty and character. She is invaluable to me, and she is a men- tor and role model for all of my students.” real estate team, with longevity in our community and a true commitment to serving the wonderful people in it. a knowledgeable, dedicated • LOYALTY • LONGEVITY • • COMMITMENT • REALTORS TOP 25

Leona was excelling on the court this year, preparing for a tournament in Orlando, Fla., when she suffered a serious knee injury, a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) that knocked her out for the remainder of the season. It is a hard blow after all, basketball and training had become a healthy way of coping with trouble but she is taking the setback in stride. She still travels with the team and tries to be a positive influence from the bench. Schoolwork and her job at Fiesta grocery keep her busy. Her calendar is full, detailed and color-coded.

“I am a little what some people call obsessive compulsive,” she says.

Every element is planned — after high school, she will attend Lamar University where she will study American Sign Language. She does not know anyone who is deaf. She says a family friend who knew sign language sparked her interest. Specifically, she wants to be able to communicate with deaf teenagers in her possible future job as a juvenile probation officer.