Make-A-Wish: Estrella's story
Estrella wants a pool, not just for herself, but for her nieces and nephews to enjoy too.
Make-A-Wish Alabama to host 'WishStock' benefit concert
'[We can] swim and have fun,' Estrella said.
Right now, they splash around in a small round plastic kiddie pool. She's asking Make-A-Wish Alabama for an upgrade. Her mom, Maria, said Estrella is always thinking about others. It isn't surprising, given how quickly the 12-year-old was forced to grow up.
'She's never had a childhood. She's always been in the hospital, so she's never enjoyed what a childhood should be,' her Dad, Efrain, said.
She has been sick since she was just three years old, but at the time, the family did not know what was making her ill.
Make-A-Wish: Micah's story
'[Doctors] would always tell me that she had flu,' Maria said. 'A year went by, two years went by, and that's what they would tell me.'
As Estrella got older, her parents said her health worsened. They said she started having fainting spells on the bus and seizures.
In 2019, they were called to Estrella's school, and a translator aide told them about UAB Children's Hospital in Birmingham. They took her there as an emergency.
'They saw that she had a tumor [in her head] and it was very big,' Maria said.
Make-A-Wish: MaKya's story
She needed emergency surgery; however, removing the tumor meant taking the child's pituitary gland with it. That had massive implications.
'She's going to be on medicine for the rest of her life,' Maria said. 'It affects all of the hormones of the body, she's not going to be able to have kids.'
To make matters worse, a year after the initial surgery, the tumor returned. This time, doctors could only successfully remove part of it.
'If they had cut that part, they told us that she could lose memory or her eyesight,' Maria said. 'That little part that stayed in her brain, it overtook other areas of her brain that are more dangerous now.'
She's almost completely blind in her right eye now. Doctors said to shrink what's left, she needed radiation, but after some time, she started to have problems with her liver.
She was diagnosed with Fatty Liver. The organ failed quickly. She would need a transplant.
'Her extremities would not like to bend and her eyes were now turning gray,' Efrain said.
She traded radiation for Dialysis while the family waited for a donor.
'Its very sad. I don't wish this on anybody,' Maria said.
Estrella never lost faith.
'I think God. I am tough,' she said.
After months of waiting and praying, the family received a call.
'I feel like that was the salvation of my daughter,' Maria said.
After that, the family was given a letter. The liver came from a little boy. His family wrote, telling Estrella a little bit about him and what he was like and how he died.
'We are very grateful. We pray that this child is resting in peace and that the parents have peace and God blesses them.'
That family's sacrifice has given Efrain and Maria three years and counting with Estrella.
'She is very strong,' Maria said.
Through the transplant, they were connected with Make-A-Wish Alabama. When Estrella said she wanted a pool, the family knew exactly where it should be.
'We're thinking in the front yard because we can watch them from [the kitchen],' Maria said.
Even as Estrella returns to radiation to treat what's left of her tumor, in between treatments, her family said she'll be busy as the best Aunt to the little ones she loves. Efrain and Maria don't want to miss a single moment.
'I pray that God allows her to live a lot of years with us.'
If you're interested in helping Make-A-Wish Alabama grant wishes like Estrella's, you can donate to News 19's 'Wishes Can't Wait' telethon right now! Click here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Buzz Feed
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- Buzz Feed
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Target Dropped New Resort-ready Dresses—and These 8 Are All Under $50
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Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Miami Herald
‘Ahead of his time': Loved ones remember G. Holmes Braddock and his legacy
Garrett Holmes Braddock remembers being both exhilarated and bored when he, as a 7-year-old child, attended University of Miami football games with his grandfather, G. Holmes Braddock. Garrett said he found the games partly boring because he couldn't see well from the stands as a young boy. But he found them exhilarating because he witnessed his grandfather's passion for the Hurricanes. Addressing dozens of mourners from the church's pulpit, Garrett wriggled his body as he shouted UM's 'C-A-N-E-S' chant, which echoed inside the church. 'Growing up in Miami, it was like being related to a superstar,' Braddock's grandson quipped, referencing Braddock's public service. '...His name and his love will always live on in all of our hearts and our memories.' On Sunday afternoon, loved ones and community members honored the life and legacy of Braddock at the church he attended for decades, Kendall United Methodist Church, 7600 SW 104th St. Braddock served on the Miami-Dade County School Board for 38 years and was well-known for his involvement at his alma mater — UM — and for his support of the university's sports programs. READ MORE: 'He shaped the futures of millions of students.' G. Holmes Braddock dies at 100 Braddock died Thursday, just one day after turning 100 years old. During his decades-long tenure on the school board, Braddock championed desegregation efforts, bilingual education in schools and collective bargaining for public school employees. In 1989, the School Board named a high school after him, G. Holmes Braddock Senior High, 3601 SW 147th Ave. He called the designation a career highlight. 'It would have to be having a senior high school named for me. I never expected it,' Braddock told the Herald in 2000. Braddock enrolled at UM in 1946, after serving aboard a medic ship during World War II. He was heavily involved at the university, serving as an assistant to the director of admissions, and held season tickets to Canes football and baseball games since 1946. In 2024, Braddock became one of 11 recipients of UM's President's Distinguished Service Award from UMiami's Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. While beginning the service, the Rev. Ruben Velasco quipped that they were starting 'right on time because that's exactly what [Braddock] would have wanted.' Braddock, Velasco said, planned the service with him, from the quoted scripture to the hymns. 'Like many of you, I am a product of the Miami-Dade County public school system, since kindergarten all the way to high school,' he said. 'And without knowing it, Holmes Braddock has been a major influence in my educational life...' But Velasco said Braddock, too, impacted his life on a personal level. He shared anecdotes of his lunches with Braddock at Chuck Wagon, where the pair talked about sports, public service and faith. Braddock, the reverend said, 'lived out what it means to be a Christian.' 'I am so certain that on the day he... passed away and he went up to be with the Lord, he heard 'Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome home. I understand you have some questions. Let's talk,'' Velasco said. Turning to the crowd, Braddock's son George Braddock recounted the story of Braddock's life from the beginning. Braddock was raised by a single mother, a school teacher, during the Great Depression. Braddock dedicated his life's work to education. His leadership, most notably in desegregation and bilingual instruction, brought Braddock admirers but also enemies, George said. 'Wow, was he ahead of his time,' he said. Braddock's daughter Rebecca Nimmer, 72, told the Miami Herald she recalled how she and her brothers Bob, George and Jim, would travel across the continuous U.S. in their father's station wagon as he worked as an insurance salesman. One of her most notable memories, she said, was witnessing the horrors of segregation while traveling in the South. 'I didn't realize how much that affected me as a human,' Nimmer said, adding that her father is the reason she values travel and learning about different cultures. Braddock, she said, used his life experiences to serve others. 'Everyone he touched, he left an imprint,' Nimmer said. Daniel Armstrong, 69, grew close with Braddock over the last 35 years during their Sunday morning hangouts at church. Armstrong said their decades-long friendship blossomed over the pair's shared love for ties. Armstrong said he and Braddock would wear different ties and share the stories of how they obtained them. At Christmas time, they held a friendly competition over who had the best holiday-themed tie. Braddock, Armstrong said, was not only a pillar in the community — but at the church. 'He was a gentle, very strong, but a very gentle person,' Armstrong said. 'Compassionate, and very humble.' Braddock's funeral ended with military honors. Uniformed service members folded the American flag that was draped over his casket. They handed the flag to his widow, Virginia 'Ginny' Braddock, as tears streamed down her face. Some of Braddock's eight grandchildren escorted his casket out of the church, as an ode to UM — the university's fight song — played. Braddock was a lifelong supporter of Hurricane athletics, said John Routh and Mark Drobiarz, of the UM Hall of Fame. 'Even in the heat on Sunday, he would go,' Drobiarz told the Herald. 'I'd ask, 'How can you take this?' He would say, 'It's baseball.'' 'He was an icon,' Routh said.
