Just for RGV Moms

By Allyson Reynolds Dixon

A few years back – OK more than a few – I wrote a story about a young basketball player named Bobbie Bryson. She was a tough little point guard for a team in West Texas, and she had a heart that wouldn’t give up. And she was invincible.

As a sophomore, Bobbie helped lead the 1996 Ozona Lady Lions  to their second consecutive state 2A title. A few weeks later, she was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia. Because of her talent on the basketball court, news of her illness reached people across the country. Because of her heart, Bobbie touched them all.

She was a tiny, fiery little gal. A whopping 5 feet, 100 pounds of unbeatable. And she fought her disease with everything she had.

A few months after she returned to West Texas from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., I had the honor of writing these words:  “More than 900 people were on hand to watch her step back onto the basketball court. When the Lady Lions got the opening tip, Bobbie dribbled the ball for a moment and then called timeout. It was the last time she was on the court competitively.

“Over the months to follow, Bobbie played the most courageous game of her life, and she did it against one of the few opponents she wasn’t sure she could beat. But in September, Bobbie finished her chemotherapy and radiation treatment. When she starts college at Texas Tech University in January, Bobbie will carry with her the dreams of the many kids from St. Jude who will never attend because they didn’t live long enough. “

St. Jude celebrates its 50^th anniversary today. And today, Bobbie is a registered nurse working in a San Angelo hospital, still showing courage and still loving life – and inspiring the kids she used to be. Bobbie was the last of her “group” at St. Jude who lived – the only one to survive. But she’s a testament to the hospital’s dedication to curing childhood cancer.

St. Jude, as you probably know, is the patron saint of lost causes.

But judging by her success, the fact that she has a Facebook page today, and the sheer fact that she’s alive, Bobbie is anything but a lost cause, and I can promise she believes she owes  a lot of that to St Jude. So do many other children.

I leave you with her favorite quote:

“When things go wrong, as they sometimes will.

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low, and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh

When care is pressing you down a bit,

…Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow,

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;

And you never can tell how close you are

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit

It’s when things seem worse, that you must not quit!”

—Author Unknown

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