Events By Heather Ham: One More Day To Bid

There is only one more day to bid for my services to help raise money for a wonderful organization called, Wish Upon a Wedding. It's almost like Make a Wish Foundation, but all of the wishes granted are wedding related. Here's one story of how it's helped someone in need:

On October 28^th, 2010, Wish Upon A Wedding’s Southern California Chapter granted its first wish. This wish is a little bit different than wishes granted by other chapters in that this, this is the wish of a young boy.

In 2009, Anthony Garcia was like any other 14 year-old. He loved going to school, playing sports and spending time with his family. When terrible headaches began to interfere with schoolwork and football practice, his mother Sandra Garcia took him to see a doctor and on November 20^th, 2009 he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Suddenly, all of the things Anthony loved to do came to a halt. He now spends his time going in and out of the hospital for medications and chemotherapy. The doctors say that for some, these medications and treatments work miracles. But the things that are supposed to make him better, only seem to make Anthony more sick.

His mother and her boyfriend, Francisco Reyes, take turns working their jobs and caring for Anthony, his younger sister Alyssa and his little brothers Isaac and Isaiah. His mother Sandra works as a clerk at a local school, returning home in time for Francisco to head to his job as a dispatcher at a nuclear pharmacy. Despite all of their hard work and tireless love and devotion to their family and to one another, mounting medical bills and missing work to care for Anthony have made their mark.

Since the day they met eight years ago, Sandra and Francisco have known that they have something special. She was out

one afternoon when she met the stranger who would be her soul mate at a restaurant where she was dining and he was working. Immediately drawn to one another in that inexplicable way you sometimes hear about, they talked and talked and, well, lunch went a little long. Two years ago, Francisco proposed on Christmas eve and while they’ve known they would one day marry, life keeps happening and they’ve never thought much beyond heading up to the courthouse.

With all of the love and care that they have shown for him and his brothers and sister, it was Anthony’s wish to see his mother and Francisco have a day that was special for them and to have a beautiful wedding that they would be able to enjoy as a family.

When the big day arrived, Anthony’s doctors were concerned that his counts were dropping and the family knew that soon, he would be in the hospital again. But he wasn’t going to miss this day for the world. When the family arrived at Rancho Las Lomas, Anthony was shivering with uncontrollable cold and was not comfortable leaving the bridal cottage. The Rancho Las Lomas team brought space heaters and Wish Upon A Wedding board member Melody Warner stepped out to bring him blankets. He missed the ceremony, but by the time the reception began, Anthony was feeling a bit better and set up camp on some of the lounge furniture provided by Fusion Linens where he was able to sit back and stay warm and watch his mother have her first dance as the wife of the man she met at lunch one day, who turned out to be her soul mate.

It has been our great joy to meet this incredible family and help them to have the most magical wedding they could wish for. Wish Upon a Wedding’s Southern California Chapter had a group of the most incredible sponsors for this event and would like to thank all of them for their incredible generosity and dedication to our wish of making wishes come true for others.