ISIS SOUFFRAIN
Cancer, lower income jeopardize family home
Isis Souffrain, seated at front, is a three-time cancer survivor; she lives with her life partner and their children. They are at risk of losing their home.
By JANIS FONTAINE
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Everyone knows someone who has lost a job or gotten seriously ill, but Isis Souffrain and Dan Michalski and their five children have been hanging tough while facing both obstacles for more than five years.
In 2009, doctors diagnosed Isis with cancer for the third time. Breast cancer in 2004 was followed by ovarian cancer in 2006, then the recurrence of breast cancer in 2009. Treating her cancer has been complicated by the asthma she’s fought her whole life. Her lungs are fragile, and she’s suffered with both a collapsed lung and pleurisy, a painful inflammation of her lungs, recently.
Tougher than the pain for Isis, though, is the damage to her teeth. Chemotherapy has taken its toll and the outgoing Isis, 40, doesn’t leave the house — or smile — as much as she’d like to because she needs dental work.
Still, Isis isn’t idle. She volunteers at her daughter’s school, Okeeheelee Middle, and attends cosmetology school so she can work with the American Cancer Society’s Look Good Feel Better program. Her dream job would be as a public speaker talking about dealing with cancer.
Her life partner, Dan Michalski, once owned a successful sheet metal fabrication business, but the collapse of the building industry forced him to close the doors. He looked for work for two years, selling his equipment along the way to keep the family afloat. About six months ago, he finally got a part-time position at Home Depot. His supervisor recently read a complimentary customer letter about him at a staff meeting, so Dan is hoping for more hours and responsibility.
Isis has her hair styled by her daughter Isis Michalski, 12, at their home in West Palm Beach.
The job came too late to prevent the family from falling behind on their mortgage. They’ve been trying to work out a payment plan with their lender, but don’t have enough income. They are afraid they’ll lose the home where the family has lived for 14 years.
Dan was able to complete the repairs to the living room, and it’s a lovely warm gold room that showcases the children’s trophies and school photos, but the family room and kitchen are unfinished. They have no heat or air conditioning. The small stove doesn’t work.
In this tight-knit family, everyone supports everyone else. The couple and their children — Priscilla, 21, Pamela, 16, Dante, 15, Isis, 12, and Paris, 8 — gather in the living room for board games or to watch the news or $1 movie rentals on Isis’ “pride,” the big-screen TV a friend gave her because it had a small crack.
But mostly, they gather for lively conversation.
Priscilla works at a restaurant while attending culinary school to become a pastry chef. Pamela, a high school junior, loves computers and music. Dante, the only boy, is in 10th grade. He’d like a bike or a longboard (skateboard). Little Isis, a seventh-grader, is a drama diva, and the sensitive, thoughtful one. She’d really like new glasses. And Paris, the baby, is in the second grade, and is a chess whiz already. She’d like a bike. (Purple, please.)
The family believes in volunteer work and giving back, and since money is tight they volunteer for the Relay for Life and Special Olympics.
Despite these challenges, the kids are happy and do well in school. Isis is active and optimistic. Dan, who has worked for everything he ever had, wants only to keep the house his family calls home.
ISIS’ WISH
Isis Souffrain and Dan Michalski need repairs to their home and cars. The son, 15, would like a bike or a longboard (skateboard). The 12-year-old daughter needs glasses. The youngest girl, 8, a chess whiz, would love a purple bike.
NOMINATED BY: American Association of Caregiving Youth
