MARTHA PINILLA
Boynton Beatch

Son’s needs, dreams concern mom struggling with tumor

  Every afternoon, Martha limps from the nearby bus stop on 10th Avenue North in Lake Worth to the small trailer she shares with her husband, Jose, and teenage son, Sergio.
  The limp is from an injury the Colombian woman sustained years ago. Worrying her more is the tumor doctors recently found in her pituitary gland, the one that’s causing her headaches. Doctors at Caridad Center have urged her to see a specialist, but she has no health insurance. She doesn’t know whether it’s benign, or whether she may need surgery.
  Martha cleans houses for a living, and Jose is an auto mechanic, but their earnings aren’t enough to buy her a car, or to see a specialist, or to buy 15-year-old Sergio, who was born with twisted feet, the orthopedic shoes he needs to play soccer, or to have a doctor repair his hernia, or to pay an orthodontist to fix his crooked teeth.
  “He’s not at all vain, but he’s in that adolescent stage, you know, where he wants to look good,” Martha said while sitting at her dining room table, just feet from the living room, which is Sergio’s bedroom.
  Despite her illnesses and economic struggles, all Martha talks about is her son. She said that she wants only the means to give him basic medical care and the possibility of fulfilling his dream of becoming a veterinarian.
  Sergio wants something similar for his mother.
  “I want her to be well taken care of,” said Sergio, an honor student at John I. Leonard High School. “She’s my all. She’s my role model.”
  Martha has lived in Palm Beach County nearly 10 years. She left her native Bogotá, following her husband and his desire to find work and a better life in the United States.
  “It is very hard, but Sergio is what keeps me going,” she said.

Martha Pinilla’s Wish
  Sergio needs orthopedic implants that will prevent his feet from twisting, as well as money to have him see an orthodontist. Sergio also needs glasses  and surgery to repair a hernia, and he would love a cellphone. Martha needs medical help to treat a tumor in her pituitary gland. The family would also like to find work that would provide stability and a better income, and would eventually like to find a place to live with a couple bedrooms for Sergio and his parents.

Nominated by: The Caridad Center
Address: 8645 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach, FL 33437
Phone: (561) 853-1636
Its mission: To upgrade the health, education and living standards for the children and families of agricultural workers, laborers and the underserved.