11 minute read
City Voices
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Request to the Town of Leicester administration to use American Rescue Plan money wisely
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Margaret Darling
My Mom was born in Leicester 1921. It’s 100 years later and the town still has 7 water/sewer districts. It is time to take Leicester out of the dark ages and give us one viable water/sewer district. The time is now and the funds are available, please do not waste this opportunity. The districts are a quasi-private/public entity. The enabling act through the House of Representatives has the final say on so many requested changes. The money from the American Rescue Plan will allow the town to move forward with a single water/sewer system. We won’t get this chance again, please act now. Margaret Darling lives in the Cherry Valley section of Leicester.
WORCESTERIA
There is a GoFundME page set up to help 13-year-old Jaden Jaillet in her battle against acute myeloid leukemia. SUBMITTED
Fundraising effort aims to help Leicester girl, 13, battle leukemia
Victor D. Infante
Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
It started with what they thought was a stomach ache. Just weeks before, Jaden Jaillet, 13, of Leicester had been in Georgia playing in a tournament with CMASS volleyball. There was no reason to believe that the athletic eighth-grader and straight-A student was sick at all.
But according to her aunt, Stacey Novia, what started as a stomach ache led to a trip to urgent care, and by the time that Jaden and her mother, Angela, had returned home, they already had a message telling them to go to the emergency room. Jaden’s white blood platelets were extremely high. Within 24 hours, they discovered that Jaden had acute myeloid leukemia.
“It was like getting hit with a brick wall,” said Novia. Jaden has been undergoing treatment at UMass Medical Center for the past eight weeks, not being allowed to leave her floor. “She can’t leave the room,” says Novia, “can’t go outside. Any type of infection, and she’d be seriously ill.” The current plan is to transfer JaDON LANDGREN WORCESTER BUS FARES DEBATE
FIRST PERSON
The Library of Disposable Art –The pet’s in the mail
David Macpherson
Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
When I was a kid, I think one of the best parts about the comics I picked up at the drugstore were the ads. I was fascinated about the full-page ads for the Sea-Monkeys. I never bought them, because I didn’t want my mail order animals to have human like faces. If I was to judge from what I would get from the picture, I was going to get small humanlike creatures, and I just didn’t think I could handle that.
There were also all the ads to teach me how to be big and muscled. I was no longer going to have sand kicked in my face, even if I was cool about it. Or I could not just be buff, but have the martial arts skills to kill a man with a viper technique. This sounded like a good investment of my five dollars.
Recently, I have dived back into these old mags and I linger on these weird little ads. There was one that made me take pause. It was a small one, only a few inches in size, but gigantic in imagination.
It read: “Baby Raccoons! One of America’s Favorite Pets! Has always been and still is. Easy to care for. $29.95 with cage. Send cashier’s check or money order along with your phone number and nearest airport. Hialeah Pets. Department 35. Hialeah, Florida.”
America’s favorite pet? Really? In what America? And
HARVEY
Inside an anaphylactic nightmare
Janice Harvey
Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
I was speechless.
When I realized my airway was closing, there was no one in the house to tell. I’d just taken a big swig of water I’d doctored with a yummy flavor enhancer when I felt my throat closing. I grabbed the phone and dialed 911, but I was barely able to squeak out the words “I can’t breathe.” It’s true — you can utter those words as your windpipe narrows, but not much else.
The dispatcher recognized this and told me not to attempt to speak. Instead she had me press keys for “YES” and “NO.” Help was on the way, but it occurred to me that the security in my building would hinder their arrival if I should pass out, unable to buzz them in. I went outside, figuring that I’d at least be visible on the sidewalk if I should lose consciousness.
Within minutes I was strapped into a gurney in the back of an ambulance by Oxford EMTs. I learned that first responders don’t mess around when it comes to people who can’t breathe — the lights and siren told me so. Oxygen, a nebulizer and a Benadryl IV were all administered as the ambulance raced over the potholed surface of I-290.
Administering an IV while riding in a speeding vehicle is an exercise in exactness. A friend who was an EMT and has performed this task likened it to “threading a needle in a washing machine.” Just before we arrived at St. Vincent Hospital’s ER, I received my virgin stab with an EpiPen. Every part of me shook uncontrollably and my teeth chattered so violently, one of them chipped.
I would remain in the ER for the next four hours while attending nurses frowned over my oxygen levels. “You’re not going home until these levels improve,” I was told. I wracked my frazzled brain for the culprit — what had I ingested? That’s when I remembered the yummy flavor enhancer, peachy delicious and in my case, nearly deadly, all because of Red dye #40.
As a kid, my mother banned “Charm” candies from the house after I developed hives from the cherry-flavored pops. That particular red dye was eventually banned, but variations of it still show up in everything from M&Ms to cough drops. Red dye #40 is actually prohibited in the EU, but here in the good ol’ USA, we still put it in all kinds of food — and much of it is consumed by kids. In the days following my anaphylactic nightmare, I did a deep-dive into the additive. The EPA might consider Red dye #40 of “low concern,” but I beg to differ. Fun fact: the dye that cut off my wind is made from petroleum. Studies have linked the dye to behavior symptoms in children. It may cause chemical changes in the brain, including depletion of minerals, such as zinc. Restricting synthetic food dyes like red #40 can lead to significant improvement in symptoms for children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Go figure.
I tracked backward and realized I had actually overdosed on the stuff. The weather was hot and I had walked three days
As a kid, my mother banned “Charm” candies from the house after I developed hives from the cherry-flavored pops. That particular red dye was eventually banned, but variations of it still show up in everything from M&Ms to cough drops. Red dye #40 is actually prohibited in the EU, but here in the good ol’ USA, we still put it in all kinds of food — and much of it is consumed by kids.
"I learned that first responders don’t mess around when it comes to people who can’t breathe." F. MUHAMMAD
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Monkeys
Continued from Page 10
the idea that these are baby raccoons and not full grown ones. As if they will never grow up. They are Peter Pan raccoons. The lost boys of scavenger animals. And don’t you think your mother will be so excited for you to have a pet at last?
In my house growing up, we were not allowed pets. We could have hamsters and gerbils, but they hardly count as pets. They are more ornaments with wood chips.
The part about that ad and the company that provided it that gets me the most is that there are at least 34 other departments at this most reputable of mail order pet purveyors. From another ad I saw online, there is a department 16 where the monkeys are purchased. I wonder what other impractical pets are behind the other numbers. What a joy. What a natural disaster.
I was able to find an online a story by a guy who claims he saved his money and ordered a monkey from one of these ads. He was able to get someone to pick it up at the airport. And when he got the monkey out of the cage, it immediately tore the kid’s face up. Can you blame it? The family kept the monkey, but it did not live long. For me, I think these ads are important not for getting a wild animal through the mail, but just to imagine what joy it would be to own a monkey or a baby raccoon. The price was high for a kid back then, so all we could do was dream. “All the kids will see me with my monkey on a leash and think I am so cool.”
The quality of the daydream is up to how much you can believe. The ads in the old comics were fantasy. Things we can create in our heads. What a joy. What a delightful disaster.
An original advertisement for Sea-Monkeys. PROMOTIONAL IMAGE
Fundraiser
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den to Boston children’s hospital, as she’s in need of a bone marrow transplant, which UMass doesn’t perform on children, but she can’t be moved until she’s finished with chemotherapy treatments to bring her platelet levels down. That might happen at the end of June, after her second round of chemo, or July, after her third.
It’s a lot for any family to endure, and Jaden’s family and family friends have set up a GoFundMe account – https:// www.gofundme.com/f/helpjadens-journey-to-fight-leukemia – to help cover the costs not covered by insurance, and help Jaden’s mother – who has been unable to work while caring for her daughter – cover bills.
Novia – who owns the Double Play Sports gym and baseball facility in Leicester with her husband, Michael – says that Jaden and her family have enjoyed an enormous amount support from the community, and from the hospital staff. “UMass is amazing,” says Novia. “I can’t say enough about that whole floor. All of the oncologists and all of the nurses have been a godsend to us.” She says they’ve also seen support from Trish Tarentino, widow of slain Auburn police officer Ronald Tarentino Jr., who has organized a charity parade, where CMass Volleyball players, police officers and Junior WooSox players will parade around the hospital in a show of support where Jaden can hopefully see. The parade is scheduled for 6 p.m. June 24 at UMass Medical Center.
“There are people just stepping up that I don’t even know,” says Novia. She admits that the ordeal has been overwhelming for everybody involved, and that Jaden herself has had her good and bad days, but says that her spirit has proven remarkably resilient.
“She’s a smart little cookie,” says Novia. “She’s a 13-year-old with an old soul. She did say that this will be her story that she writes for college. She wants to go to Florida State, to play volleyball for the Gators. She’s very intelligent. That’s why it kind of blows my mind. Why her? She’s an unbelievable kid.”
This article has been edited to reflect that date for the parade has changed, and to correct what type of business Double Play Sports is.
Harvey
Continued from Page 11
in a row, each time ingesting bottles of water I had “enhanced.” The last bottle — the one I was gulping when my throat closed — was loaded with the stuff. Peach flavor — the color was a pretty shade of orange. If I’d thought about it I would’ve remembered the color wheel I learned about in first grade — red and yellow make orange, Dummy.
Thankfully, the only lingering effect of my ignorance was two arms so terribly bruised I tried to hide them under long sleeves after getting double takes at my grandkid’s baseball game.
“You look like Farrah Fawcett in ‘The Burning Bed,’” was one of the snarkier observations made by a friend, who remains a friend despite his utter lack of compassion.
I’m sure there are people who can gobble handfuls of red M&Ms and wash them down with Cherry Kool-Aid, but I’m steering clear of the color red for a while, or at least until I can be thoroughly tested to confirm the obvious. I have to wait for the steroids I was given to leave my system, I was told by the allergist, otherwise everything would come back negative. Meanwhile, the only other possible cause would be ingesting shrimp, and if I’m told I can’t eat shellfish while visiting Maine this summer, well … it won’t be good for me or anyone who knows me.
Let this be a lesson to those of you who dive with abandon into red velvet cakes and chew copious amounts of Skittles: When the dispatcher asks if you are alone, press #1 for YES and #2 for NO.
And one more thing: Many thanks to the Oxford EMTs and the ER staff at St. V’s. They very likely saved my life.
