“The nurses make the hospital stays bearable to begin with. Without them it would be so hard. But to do that on top of it?” The “that” Erika Johnson was talking about was throwing her daughter a “prom” at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Johnson’s daughter, Faith, was looking forward to her senior year at Lambert High School in Forsyth County. But after numerous tests to find out why her joints ached and she felt tired so much, that enthusiasm dimmed.
“On Nov. 11, I was sitting in physics, and then I got checked out (of class),” the student council president and homecoming queen said in a video on the school’s website. “I knew something was wrong when both my parents were there, and I thought, ‘OK, this is a little weird.’
“When my mom told me, everything just stopped,” she said. Faith had leukemia.
During the treatments, however, the teen remained active in school and optimistic about going to the prom. “We got matching dresses. Hers was in red, mine was in black,” she told 11 Alive, talking about her best friend. “We were both very excited.”
But Faith’s prom night was spent at Children’s.
Her nurses weren’t about to let her miss out on such a milestone event, however. They encouraged her to put on her black dress and red shoes anyway, and to take a stroll down the hall to show them off.
“When my mom came in, I peeked out and was like ‘Oh!’ There’s streamers and a sign and I was like, ‘OK this is going to be a prom I guess!’” she told 11 Alive.
In addition to the sign, which read “Will you go to prom with us?” the nurses used a pillow case to make Faith a prom queen sash. There was even dancing and posing for photos.
“That’s going to be a lot more memorable than my real prom would have been,” she said. “It was really unforgettable.”
“I’m sure their job description doesn’t include throw a fake prom for one patient or going the extra mile but they constantly do,” Faith wrote in an Instagram post. “Their love and compassion is something I admire and love about them.”
The teen was able to attend and speak at her graduation and even attended a few parties afterward.
She began the next phase of her treatment June 1, her mother wrote in a blog that keeps everyone up to date with Faith’s journey. Despite the chemo making her sick, Faith is going ahead with plans to attend the University of California Santa Barbara in the fall. The nurses at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital will take over there.
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