The Catholic Standard and Times

St. Agnes School rallies around Raine

By CHRISTIE L. CHICOINE
CS&T Staff Writer

Nine-year-old Raine Talley reports to her third-grade class at St. Agnes School in West Chester promptly, and properly — with pencil in hand and wearing her Catholic-school uniform, yet she never steps foot on the campus.

Raine, who is in remission from leukemia, is routinely connected to her classroom by videophone at 8:15 a.m., ready to begin a typical day at her beloved parochial school with her teacher, Christine Collins, and her peers.
“It’s good,” Raine said. She added in earnest: “It’s not as good as being at school, but it’s good.”

Raine appreciates the videophone arrangement. Had it not been an option, she said, “I might be feeling sad because I might [have had to] go back to third grade.”

Raine was diagnosed with leukemia last May, just a week after she received her first holy Communion at St. Agnes Church in West Chester.

The diagnosis came “out of the blue,” her mother said. Prior to that, Raine had “the thinnest medical file you’ve ever seen.”

Then the week before her first Communion, Raine came down with the flu, and was kept home from school for three days.

She recovered, made her first Communion, and returned to school the following week. That Friday night, she went to a sleepover with her cousins at their grandmother’s house.

When she came home the next morning, Raine went to bed. This surprised her parents, who affectionately refer to their active daughter as “the Ever Ready bunny.”

Later in the day, just before Mass, her mother noticed Raine had fallen asleep again, this time on the couch in the playroom. She assumed her daughter was tired from the sleepover. But following Mass and dinner, Raine came down with a fever.

Early the next week, her pediatrician gave her a complete blood work-up. Not long after that, Raine was admitted to the A.I. duPont Hospital for children in Wilmington, Del., for a bone marrow biopsy.

Raine was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia — a form of cancer that, her mother said, has the highest cure rate.

In a week, she was in what was classified as rapid early recovery. Two weeks later, further testing indicated she needed a bone marrow transplant.

Chemotherapy treatments consumed most of Raine’s summer. Before the transplant surgery, she underwent three days of total body radiation.

Doctors found her perfect bone marrow match for her transplant on Oct. 4 in her 6-year-old brother, John. The procedure took place at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“I felt really good about it, because I wanted Raine to be not sick anymore,” John said. He said the procedure didn’t hurt, and if he had to do it all over again, he would.

Above all, John is happy his sister is healthy. Typical siblings, Raine and John have had their fair share of ups and downs. “Sometimes, we fighted,” John said. “Now, we’re, like, better.”

Raine also has a younger sister, Deirdre, who is 5. Both her siblings also attend St. Agnes — John is in first grade and Deirdre is in preschool.

Watching their daughter’s body accept their son’s bone marrow was phenomenal to Bill, 44, and Patty, 40. “It is such a fine-detailed chemistry experiment,” Patty said. “You really do know that God made an incredibly detailed work of art. We look at the Sistine Chapel — all we really need to look at is ourselves.”

A week after Raine’s return home, she came down with a high fever in the middle of the night. En route to the hospital, she went into septic shock.

By the time she was wheeled into the intensive care unit, her blood pressure had rapidly dropped.

Doctors told Raine’s parents that she was battling a bacterial infection with virtually no immune system, and that she could die.

When their daughter was placed on a respirator, Bill and Patty hung on to the fact that Raine had defied other dismal medical predictions.

And they prayed. On Raine’s bed were a crucifix and numerous prayer cards. Father John A. Franey, a senior priest at St. Agnes Parish who was on call, arrived at the hospital in the middle of the night to pray for Raine and her family. “I really feel, with all the praying that everybody did for her, it saved her life,” Patty said.

Among the saints whom the Talleys asked to intercede for Raine were St. John Neumann, St. Rita and St. Anthony. “We wore through so many prayer cards,” Bill said. “We got through it with the help of God.”

Five days later, Raine was on her way to recovery — a recovery that has surprised even her doctors, and reinforced her parents’ faith. “I really feel she was a miracle,” Patty said.

In early December, Raine resumed her schooling at home. She is dually enrolled — both in parochial and public school. Through the public school, she’s provided with a tutor two days a week. She is scheduled to return to the campus of St. Agnes School after Easter.

Patty shed tears of gratitude as she described the love and support her family has received from St. Agnes School. Students from every grade have let Raine know she is in their thoughts and prayers.

“When a fifth-grade boy who doesn’t even know your daughter sends her a card saying, ‘God is watching over you,’ you know that you’ve done the right thing by sending her to that school,” Patty said. “You know that by putting your child in a Catholic school, you have given them a depth that you would have missed out on” otherwise.

In addition to presents and boxes of correspondence, Raine most recently received a pretzel jar jammed with notes from her classmates. And that’s not all. The mother of a student in the other third-grade class coordinated a quilt project for Raine that consists of squares that were personally designed by her peers. “It’s the most beautiful symbol of just, exactly, what has gone on at that school,” Patty said. “The love there is amazing.”

Sister, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Ellen Thomas Ertel, principal of St. Agnes, said that accommodating Raine through the videophone instruction illustrates what St. Agnes School is all about: “We do go the extra mile to help those who need help.”

St. Agnes School has an enrollment of 502 pupils, from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. There are 56 third-graders; Raine’s class has 28 students.

When Raine’s classmates learned of her illness, they were devastated, Sister Ellen Thomas said. Then, when her classmates learned she would be returning to class electronically, the third-graders “thought it was great that Raine could be there with them, on the monitor,” the principal added.

According to Sister Ellen Thomas, Raine is a role model to her schoolmates: “They know how brave she was to have gone through everything she went through in order to get better again.”

Raine is “very vivacious,” Sister Ellen Thomas added. “She has a lot of personality. The kids love her.”

Bill and Patty also praised Raine for the confidence she has demonstrated throughout her illness. Patty recalled the day in early December that Raine resumed classes electronically. Although she was wearing a wig, she removed it to show her friends her bald head. It was, in essence, a badge of honor, Patty said: “I was so proud of her to be like, ‘This is me.’

“After that, Raine never wore that wig again,” her mother added. Raine’s hair has since grown back.

Both Bill and Patty describe their daughter as “unflappable.” Both were amazed to watch her barely flinch as numerous needles were stuck into her little body.

Although Raine’s parents told her it would be OK if she cried or was angry, she rarely was.

Raine remembers crying when she was told what her diagnosis was, and that she would have to go to the hospital. But she persevered. “I prayed,” she said.

She advises other children who are ill to remember: “It’s OK to cry once in awhile.”

“She has an inner-strength that’s really amazing,” Bill said. “She’s just very even-keeled — she doesn’t get rattled.”

Some of the shots she has even administered herself.

“We’re very proud of her,” her father said.

Although Raine loves art and acting, she recently told her parents that she wants to be an oncology nurse when she grows up.

Academically, she is advancing on schedule, according to her principal, who noted that even before her illness, Raine was an all-around model student.

“She’s a smart little girl,”Sister Ellen Thomas said. “We pray for Raine daily,” she added. “It’s part of our morning prayer.”

Raine is also remembered in prayer at St. Agnes Church.

“In those initial days after the diagnosis, it was a very great cross for the family to carry,” said Msgr. Edward M. Deliman, pastor of St. Agnes Parish. “Certainly this parish was right up in front, helping the Talley family and being of support to them in every way they possibly could be.”

Because Raine’s immune system is still susceptible, she must be extremely cautious in public. But she is allowed to ride her bike in her neighborhood, and to go to movies and restaurants where the crowds are small.

At St. Agnes Church, the Talley family sits in the choir loft during Masses when the choir is not scheduled to sing.

“It’s cool,” Raine said. Parishioners wave to the family before and after Mass. The Talleys wait to leave the church until the other parishioners have exited.

“The first time we sat there, it was heaven,” Patty said of her family’s special perch during Masses. “It was so nice — everyone was as excited about it as we were. Monsignor was just like, ‘Oh, it’s working out!’”

In addition to their extended family, many medical experts, and school and parish communities, the Talleys say their neighbors have also come through for them — knowing just when to ask to let the family dog out, or to cook them dinner.

Both Bill and Patty see the redeeming good that has surfaced as a result their daughter’s dreadful disease.

Living through Raine’s illness, Patty said, was as though “everything was in black and white, and then it becomes color.”

“Always appreciate what God gives you,” Patty added. “Try to find the blessings in what you have. …

“I can honestly say, compared to a lot of families that I see when I go to that hospital, it breaks my heart to realize I actually have it good,” she said. “There are some families who don’t even have a car to get there. They don’t have insurance. There are single mothers — I can’t even begin to imagine the cross they have to carry every day. They don’t have the support system we had.”

When their daughter was first diagnosed with leukemia, thoughts of, “Why? What did we do wrong?” ran through Patty’s head, “almost like God was punishing us.” Now, Patty said of Raine’s diagnosis, “It was, strangely, a blessing. It made me wake up, and really appreciate what’s really important.”

Raine echoes her parents’ appreciation of the prayers of everyone on her behalf, as she also continues to pray.

“They’ve reached out a lot,” Raine said. “Thank you.”

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.