Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
It’s November 2021, and the air in Clifton, New Jersey, has a subtle bite to it. It’s a bit too cold now for Alex and Erica Lopez to enjoy their usual family adventures with their 12-year-old daughter, Jaylene, and their six-year-old son, Jordan (affectionately nicknamed “Munchie”). All the hiking, camping, fishing, and dirt biking will return along with the warmer weather of spring.
Despite the fast-approaching winter, life for the Lopez family is in full swing. Alex, not yet at Parsons, is traveling to Chicago every two weeks for work; Erica is a busy surgical tech in the EOR for the Palisades Medical Center and Edgewater; and the kids are occupied with school—Jaylene with seventh grade and Jordan with first grade. They are also getting the house ready for Thanksgiving. They typically host extended family for the holiday, and they are planning for another great get-together of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.
But on Friday, November 19th—just days away from Thanksgiving—the family receives news that will change their lives forever.
Instead of the Thanksgiving they had planned, the family of four spend it in the ICU, their “Munchie” is healing after what’s known as a “skin flap” surgery, performed to remove the cancerous lumps on his head.
Jordan had been diagnosed with leukemia, specifically B-cell acute lymphoma. Alex was in a meeting when he heard the news. He and Erica had an agreement that she call him twice if there ever was an emergency, so he would know to immediately stop whatever he was doing to answer the phone. As promised, he answered the phone right in the middle of the meeting. Erica was hysterical.
Alex left immediately to be with his family. Though he didn’t expect the diagnosis, he suspected the emergency call would have something to do with his son. He and his wife had been taking him to various doctors since the summer, when Jordan first started complaining of joint pain—pain that was significant enough to limit his mobility and cause him to lose a lot of weight. Then, in October, things got more concerning when Jordan had gone for a haircut and the barber, Alex’s cousin, noticed a lump on the back of the six-year-old’s head. Around the same time, a lump on the front of the boy’s head was gradually getting larger.
Doctors escalated to specialists, which prompted scans, which resulted in the discovery of more lumps in his neck and chest, and that’s when the cancer diagnosis came. The doctors wanted to see Jordan right away, so it came to be that the family ate their Thanksgiving meal on height-adjustable tables at Jordan’s bedside.
What followed was a months-long stay in the hospital, followed by week or two-week stays. In June, Jordan started chemo, and one day not long after, Erica was brushing his hair and clumps fell out. Alex decided right then and there that he would not let his son go through this dramatic change to his appearance alone, so once Jordan’s head was shaved, he handed the clippers to his son and let him do the honors.
Between the hospital stays and the COVID pandemic, Jordan was at home most of the time, either because he was being treated, he was fatigued, or he needed to be protected from illness. Jordan’s social worker at the hospital, however, had a clever way for Jordan to stay connected to his classmates. She sent what was known as a “Big Bear” into the classroom and had the bear seated in Jordan’s normal seat. The bear wore a backpack, and his classmates stuffed the backpack with cards, pictures, and notes that were sent home to Jordan for him to enjoy. His teacher was very involved, too, and the class would occasionally video conference Jordan at home so he could say hello and update his friends on his progress.
So there were bright spots, but Jordan, who not only lost his hair but had to be put on steroids to increase his appetite, was self-conscious about his appearance. The few times the family took their son out of the house to have some sense of normalcy resulted in Jordan getting sick, and of course Alex, Erica, and Jaylene were all struggling emotionally watching their Munchie fight for his life.
Alex credits his daughter’s strength and encouragement—and his son’s—for getting him through this period.
“It sounds like a cliché,” Alex says, “but Jordan was unwavering throughout this entire process. He wanted to know everything about what was going to happen at any given doctor’s appointment and for any given procedure. He didn’t want us to hold back any detail. So we and the doctors discussed everything in front of him and were explicit. I think Jordan felt like because he knew the ‘why’ something was happening and because he had us, he could get through anything, which made me realize if he could do it, we could too.”
The Lopez family had to make accommodations for Jordan throughout this time. Erica left work to be the main caretaker, and Alex, after a few months away from work, made a career change to Parsons, which he says is the best decision he could’ve made because Parsons gave him the flexibility he needed by allowing him to work from home a majority of the time, which enabled him to stay present in his son’s life and involved in his recovery.
Alex is now a project manager for the New York Bus Radio Systems project, and he credits his coworkers for their support through this challenge. He says, “My coworkers became more than just coworkers or even friends. They became family. They still check in every week to see how Jordan’s doing.”
Even with the support, the road has been long and difficult, but as of January 24, 2024, Jordan has been cancer-free. Now in fourth grade, he’s involved in fundraising for the LLS—the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In fact, he helped raise $2.7 million. Jordan was also involved in a special prom night the society puts on for kids with cancer, from infants to teenagers, and he became the honored hero for North Jersey for giving back to other families dealing with the same situation his family did.
Even though Jordan has unfortunately suffered a couple of vasovagal seizures despite being cancer-free, he’s determined to not be the “cancer kid” and to get back to living. Slowly, the rest of the family is starting to do the same. They’re returning to the camping, hiking, fishing, and dirt biking they used to do and have even traveled to Puerto Rico, Los Angeles, the Dominican Republic, and Pennsylvania.
Erica is back at work. Jaylene is now a 16-year-old high schooler. Jordan is back in school full time. Life might never be the same, but they are stronger than they’ve ever been, and more determined to make every day count. Together, they have weathered the storm, and with the worst behind them, they can look forward to the brighter days ahead.