YVETTE ALICEA

She pits pride, courage against cancer

By LIZ BALMASEDA
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

In her darkest hour, Yvette Alicea, ovarian cancer patient and single mother of a 15-year-old son, sent up a prayer: “God, please let me live, so I can raise my son and help others.”
She is a woman with the heart of a social worker, a sense of mission she inherited from her mother in Puerto Rico. Even on days when she’s feeling weak from her cancer treatments, she brightens when she talks about those she’s been able to help, like the young mother with the cancer-stricken baby she shuttled to the hospital, or the poor families she has helped through her church group by staging fashion shows.
Yvette is 43 and she’s been fighting her cancer for six years, since her son was 9. It began with a searing pain in her lower abdomen one day close to Thanksgiving of 2002. After several hours in surgery, doctors came to a devastating conclusion: Yvette had an aggressive form of ovarian cancer.
Since then, the Jupiter mother has undergone several operations, several rounds of chemotherapy and intensive radiation treatments. An articulate woman who holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, she was forced to put her dream of earning a social work degree on hold when the cancer returned, for the third time, two years ago. Since then, it has reappeared three more times.
During a period of remission, Yvette found a job at Families First of Palm Beach County, an agency that assists struggling families. But earlier this year, Yvette’s doctors urged her to stop working. In July, they delivered another difficult diagnosis: The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.
She is on medical leave, but her health benefits run out at the end of December. She receives sporadic financial support from her ex-husband, but he lost his job some years ago and now struggles to make a living in sales.
Yvette was forced to declare bankruptcy after her first recurrence of cancer. She was able to save her house, but has fallen behind in payments after her subsequent cancer bouts.
Her son, J.J. Crespo, a 10th-grader, is an outfielder on the junior varsity baseball team at Jupiter High. He recalls how his mother, in the wake of her divorce from his father, devoted her nights and weekends to making him feel at home in Jupiter, a city where they had no family. She nurtured his love for baseball, shuttling him to practice and games.
“My mother has taught me to be strong,” says the quiet teen, who greets visitors with a handshake.
Yvette beams as she watches J.J. excuse himself and head upstairs to study in his room.
“In spite of everything, I feel so blessed,” says Yvette. She is a cheerful woman with a robust personality, but her eyes mist over when she says this. “I believe there is always hope.”

YVETTE’S WISH

This family needs financial assistance to pay bills and household expenses.
Yvette’s 15-year-old son, an avid baseball player, needs a computer for schoolwork. The family’s computer stopped working recently.

Nominated by Families First of Palm Beach County, 3333 Forest Hill Blvd, 2nd Floor, West Palm Beach, FL, 33406 (561) 721-2887.

UPDATE

Yvette Alicea, a single mother battling ovarian cancer, facing foreclosure and teetering on the verge of losing her medical insurance, calls herself a blessed woman. She believes she has seen the divine in the kind acts of strangers.

“I feel God exists in each of the persons who has helped me,” says the mother of a 15-year-old son, Jupiter High 10th-grader J.J. Crespo.

After Alicea’s story appeared in Season to Share, she received a computer and printer for her son, a computer for herself, a DVD player, groceries, money to pay household and medical expenses, and a flood of good will.

“People have really opened their hearts to me and my son,” says the 43-year-old Alicea, who has been fighting her cancer for six years. “I am so grateful to them.”

The community’s generosity has mitigated the setbacks she has suffered in the past couple of weeks, when a severe flu forced her to delay scans and treatment.

As is Alicea’s nature, her spirits remain upbeat. She has much to be thankful for, she says.

“I want to say ‘thank you’ to all those people who have been so generous with me,” says Alicea, who was nominated by Families First of Palm Beach County. “I want them to know that I pray for all of them. I pray that God multiplies their blessings.”