Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2

Maldonado with his mother, Evelyn
Ochoa, and school chaplain Father
Sam Ward at a special school Mass
last September for Childhood Cancer
Awareness Month. | SEMAJ SANDERS
you sign up for in Catholic education.
“You show how much you love each
other, the whole person, including
the spiritual, in tough times and good.
That’s what this wonderful group of
people did, created all these moments
of grace as Atticus went through this
crazy time.”
And during that crazy time, Atticus
remained pretty much Atticus. Evelyn
described him cracking jokes throughout
the process, “making me laugh
while he’s vomiting from the chemo,”
her son sustained by a faith she said she
wishes she could “bottle and drink from
every day.”
His faith was such that he believed
he could not only survive but serve
through his illness. He volunteered to
be part of a rhabdomyosarcoma study.
Though his mom thought he had
enough to worry about just getting better,
the kid who wanted to be an altar
server since he was 7, and had more
recently taken to training younger servers
at his home parish of St. Gertrude
Church in Bell Gardens, said he was
just following a divine plan for him.
“I felt maybe this was a sign from
God, a way I could help others so
that another kid wouldn’t have to go
through what I did,” he said. “This can
help a kid from experiencing the same
speed bump I did, maybe save another
kid’s life.”
Evelyn showed up at the PMA Christmas
Tree Lighting ceremony Dec. 1,
2023, to share the news that her son
was now cancer-free and was now in
the maintenance phase of treatment,
which will continue for another six
months. She thanked all those who
did everything they could to make that
happen. Some people started calling it
the Miracle on Gardendale Street, the
street the school is located on.
Maldonado, of course, was just happy
it meant that he could go back to
school. He did so for the first time in
a long while on Jan. 8, as PMA went
back after Christmas break. He said he
was a little nervous about being able to
keep up with school and homework,
but by the end of the day felt like he
was back in the flow of things.
“He arrived in uniform wearing a
beanie to cover his head and joined us
for our morning assembly,” De Larkin
said. “There he sat among his peers in
the junior section of the
gym and began his first
day of school as a normal
student. It was a beautiful
sight to see.”
Maldonado agreed it was
nice. He said he thought
there might be a lot of
questions from classmates
about what he’d gone
through, but none ever
came.
“No one really asked me.
It was pretty good to not
talk about it.”
So perhaps he can find his way back
to normal sooner than later, though
always with a faith his mother calls “out
of this world,” a faith that combines the
innocence of a child with the strength
of a survivor.
“I guess I just feel like if something
bad happens, I’m going to get through
it,” he said. “It’s just a speed bump. Me
and God, I feel like we have a pretty
good connection.”
Steve Lowery is a veteran journalist
who has written for the Los Angeles
Times, the Los Angeles Daily News,
the Press-Telegram, New Times LA, the
District, Long Beach Post, and the OC
Weekly.
Maldonado with friends at St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy earlier this month. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
12 • ANGELUS • January 26, 2024