Fitness Files: Little fairy next door is ready to fly away
In 1999, a fairy princess alighted next door. Through the slats of our redwood fence, we caught glimpses of golden curls, a lemon-yellow tulle dress and magic wand. Sometimes she looked down from her upstairs balcony, diamond tiara flashing. We loved her chime-like singing voice and tippy-toe dances.
She would vanish when her mother called her in for a breathing treatment. One day, while I visited, her mother picked her up, sat her on the kitchen counter, held up her fairy dress to pour enzymes through a button in her tummy. Snap, button closed, the fairy jumped down, singing and dancing around the kitchen island.
Olivia was born with cystic fibrosis — along with green eyes, peaches-and-cream completion and extra creative genes.
CF Source defines the condition as “a hereditary disorder … causing the production of abnormally thick mucus, leading to the blockage of the pancreatic ducts, intestines and bronchi, and often resulting in respiratory infection.” Kids with cystic fibrosis take multiple medicines daily to stay healthy. A simple cold means a potential hospitalization.
Last month, Olivia graduated from Newport Harbor High. After graduation, we talked over “old times.”
Olivia told me, “I remember photos of the ‘fairy dress,’ but I was not a fairy. I was Bell from ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ I was obsessed with Bell.” She laughs a throaty laugh.
Olivia’s parents sent her to private schools through her elementary years. “There were like nine kids in my class. They were all the same, and I was different. They teased me about my trach scar, my hemangioma scar and because I was so little.”
Olivia continued, “I wanted to be liked. I talked all the time — mostly I sang all the time. I was really annoying. My mom said, ‘Just be calm. Kids’ll come to you.’ She was right, but I didn’t know at the time. I would’ve been better off at bigger schools with more diverse kids, but my parents were afraid I’d catch something from big classes.”
From age 10 to 18, Olivia was hospitalized often. At first we made banners and welcome signs for homecoming, but then, we didn’t even find out about the hospital stays. Olivia returned home and to school. No fuss. Done. Back to life.
Cystic fibrosis treatments improved in the meantime. Olivia’s independence came in the form of a vest. No more mom pounding Olivia’s chest to release sticky substance from her lungs. Instead she slips into a self-pounding vest two times a day.
“I should be doing homework while the vest works, but I watch YouTube, do Facebook or Hulu,” says Olivia, laughing again.
Olivia was hospitalized a dozen times during high school. Once, nurses took too long to arrive at her hospital room, so she removed the IV herself. When she experienced digestive track blockages, she treated herself with Golytely. When she developed CF-related diabetes, she learned to read her blood sugar monitor.
“The tough part was the shots,” Olivia says, “but now I have an insulin pump. No shots!”
I asked about the social life at Harbor High. “Oh, there are groups — athletes, cheerleaders, drama kids. We don’t really talk to each other, but no one cares. I can tell some people judge me, think I’m weird. They don’t shun me. There’s no bullying. It’s a real live-and-let-live environment. My group is the weird people, and I’m weird, so I was really happy there.”
Have you noticed that nothing stops a fairy princess? Besides, she transformed into a country and western goddess.
We still hear Olivia, singing through the redwood fence. But we also have her album, “Lettin’ Go,” available on Amazon and iTunes, with songs written, arranged and sung by Olivia. Order a copy. Watch the famous Olivia Gabrielle video, “Caution,” on YouTube.
Nowadays Olivia jumps in her car to go to work at an insurance office. “I’m the manual labor,” she told me, “meaning formatting, printing and cleaning out computers.”
Olivia embraces her Texas mom’s Southern roots. “I love the music, the culture, the Southern accent,” she said. “I want one.”
Our goddess/fairy princess is leaving.
Accepted at four colleges, she did her own brand of research. “I looked for universities with accredited CF treatment centers near by. I need my own room — I’d drive a roommate crazy, coughing, the motor sound of the nebulizer and the shaking vest.”
She selected the University of Oklahoma, which has a fully certified cystic fibrosis center. Not that the hospital is Olivia’s main focus. She’s got a boyfriend waiting. “I met a cool guy at Camp Crimson, orientation for incoming freshmen.”
This fall, we’ll miss Olivia’s voice, laugh and little car parked by the garage. There comes a time when fairies take to the Southerly breezes, alighting on new balconies.
Olivia wrote:
“I love to pretend I’m someone I’m not … daydream ... around the simple statement ‘I wish’….
“‘I wish’ means that you believe you’d love your life more another way; you’d love yourself more if you were different.
“What if I told you that you could have it all with one step? The roots of this tree of dreams are to believe.
“Believe that you are that person, and you will have the qualities.
“Actually, you have them already. Qualities are like muscles: You’re born with them and they have a ton of potential. But you don’t see muscles until you work them.
“Be who you want to be.”
By Olivia Gabrielle, 2015
Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK is a retired teacher who ran the Los Angeles Marathon at age 70, winning first place in her age group. Her blog is lazyracer@blogspot.com.