Before she dies, Texana Striggles wants to win back what she lost to a stroke: the ability to read and write.
“I’ve been trying to read and write every day since I had the stroke,” Striggles said.
For nine years, she’s plugged away.
The 85-year-old now is fighting a malignant neoplasm in her lungs that could take her life this year.
But she refuses to give up on the simple pleasures she once enjoyed — like sitting down to read the newspaper or expressing emotions in handwritten letters.
So on Tuesday morning at the Sable Care and Rehabilitation Center in Aurora, Striggles sat with an instructor from Sylvan Learning Center.
FASHION DREAM: Diane von Furstenberg is no stranger to celebrities in her front row, but on Sunday, she will have a special guest. Latoya Headley always dreamed of attending a fashion show. She was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, which paralyzed her from the waist down, in 2007, and the 25-year-old recently wrote about her wish to the Dream Foundation. The Alexandria, Va., native also will lunch with Lyn Devon before attending the DVF show with her sister, Naima, and on Monday will get a tour of the Oscar de la Renta showroom, lunch and a shopping experience at Bergdorf Goodman, and then head down to the West Village to take in the fall Donna Karan Collection show. Diva Limos will be driving her around town, and Dream Foundation arranged for the airfare and hotel stay at Hotel Mela. “I have always had a passion for style and fashion, so this is truly a dream come true for me,” Headley said. “I feel so blessed by the way Dream Foundation — and these amazing designers — have rallied to make this a incredible and memorable experience.”
The Dream Foundation, which grants wishes for terminally ill adults held its eighth annual Celebration of Dreams event — a soiree of music, fashion, and auctions — at Bacara Resort & Spa. Carolina Herrera’s cheerful 2010 resort collection graced the runway, and Peter Noone hosted the auctions. The stage was packed with entertainers, including Amercian Idol winner Kris Allen, Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, Grammy nominee Taylor Dayne, and star crooner Kenny Loggins.
The fourth-grade class of Marymount of Santa Barbara recently decided to donate their time by helping families devastated by terminal illness.
As part of their holiday class party, the students chose to help the Dream Foundation with its annual Toy Program by gift-wrapping toys.
The Dream Foundation’s Toy Program brings hundreds of donated toys to the children of parents with life-threatening illnesses. Toys are given to recipients nationwide and help bring a little cheer to families struggling with illness.
Time could be short for Diana Quiroz. She has terminal cancer.
But she has dreams.
“There’s so much I want to accomplish,” Quiroz says.
A former licensed vocational nurse, she understands her situation. Quiroz, 46, recently was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor, her third such diagnosis since 2003.
She tried surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. The cancer now is so advanced that she and her doctors have decided to stop treatment, allowing her to concentrate on the time she has left.