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When you wish upon a star...
The small team of volunteers finished the project just five minutes before Terry Martinez came home. Although they cut the timing close, the team wanted everything to be perfect -- to give the ailing teen a welcome he wouldn't soon forget.
A quiet, reserved individual of few words, the teen's smile seemed to speak volumes as he walked into his bedroom for the first time in three days. The extensive renovations and new furniture that transformed his bedroom into a personal retreat of sorts left him grasping for the right words to express what he truly felt.
Almost at a whisper, the shy teen was only able to say four words -- "This is so cool."
On a cloudy, bitter afternoon, one of Terry's dreams finally came true Saturday. For the Mountain Home teen, it followed months of pain and uncertainty that left him in the clutches of a life-threatening illness.
Terry's life came to a screeching halt last September after a sudden illness struck him.
"His head hurt a lot and got so bad that we had to pick him up from school one day," said his father, Tereso. In addition, Terry was always breaking out in a sweat with his body covered in rashes.
"He just felt really weak. He couldn't even open a water bottle," said his sister, Karina.
Then the pain set in as the disease hit his internal organs. On Nov. 23, the Martinez family received the grim prognosis -- Terry was battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia -- a rare, fast-growing cancer that attacks disease-fighting white blood cells.
"When I was first diagnosed, I was kind of shocked. It took me a while to realize that I was actually very sick," Terry said.
The diagnosis frightened both of his parents, who continue to worry about their son's fate.
"The first thing we kept thinking about was what if he dies," Tereso said.
Three days after the diagnosis, Terry started chemotherapy treatment. Fighting the cancer involved daily injections of medicine in his legs for three months. In addition to developing an allergic reaction to the shots, he started losing his hair. The drugs also caused his face and throat to swell. Even something as simple as drinking water caused him extreme discomfort.
"He was weak a lot of the time," said his mother, Enriqueta.
While the cancer had Terry battling constant pain, the treatment seemed to make him feel even worse. "I got so sick that I had to stay in the hospital for two weeks," the teen added.
As the treatment continued, his parents learned of an outlet to give their son a ray of hope and a reason to beat the disease. A nurse told them about the Make-A-Wish Foundation -- an organization dedicated to fulfilling the dreams of children battling debilitating diseases and ailments.
Granting wishes like this helps patients like Terry prevail through their treatment. They see it as the light at the end of the tunnel giving them hope and something to reach for as they battle their life-threatening conditions, said Nancy Berry, program services director with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho.
"A wish is a chance for a young person like Terry to take control over an aspect of his life," Berry said. "Doctors provide the medicine while Make-A-Wish provides the magic."
Last June, Tereso and Enriqueta submitted Terry's request for a bedroom transformation to the foundation's office in Boise. After several months of planning, the foundation cleared the way to make his wish come true.
Last Thursday, volunteers with various carpentry and remodeling skills descended on the Martinez home. They covered his room's turquoise-colored walls with a fresh coat of blue paint and replaced his stucco ceiling with acoustical tiles. They gutted his closet and replaced it with a modular storage system to hold all of Terry's personal effects and even replaced his bedroom window.
The room transformation also corrected a few mechanical problems. The team replaced a faulty floorboard heater to keep his room comfortable. They also fixed all of his wall outlets, which hadn't worked for some time and had forced Terry to run extension cords from his sister's room to run different appliances.
But the remodeling team wasn't finished yet. Broyhill Furniture and DeMeyer Furniture of Mountain Home teamed up to provide him with a new bed and other furnishings to allow friends to hang out with Terry as his recovery continues.
"We feel that providing comfortable living spaces for children with life-threatening medical conditions will assist them in maintaining their confidence and inner strength through medical challenges," said Jeff Cook, president of Broyhill Furniture.
With his wish now fulfilled, Terry remained a bit overwhelmed by the experience.
"When I walked into the room, I was shocked and amazed," he said. "I'm just thankful they had the time to do all this for me."
Following months of treatment, the teen is finally back on his feet and able to resume classes at Mountain Home High School. His illness kept him mostly homebound, forcing him to miss a year of school.
"I used to be sick all the time," he said.
Through this ordeal, his family also learned that they're not alone when it comes to battling cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
"We saw a lot of kids, including babies, with the same condition," his father said. "It made us realize we were not the only ones going through this."
With the main battles now behind him, Terry is now setting his sights on new horizons. Originally hoping to study zoology after high school, he's now looking at pursuing a career with the Air Force.
Looking back, Terry also admits his desire to live a full life helped him pull through his treatment and occasional setbacks.
"I figured it was not my time to leave this world," he said.