Published: October 30, 2009 11:01 am      

Life's great lessons sometimes start as small stories

There are journalists out there who only want to cover the big stories. I’m not one of them.

Some of the greatest blessings I’ve found in my career have arrived on my desk wrapped in a humble disguise that appeared to have little news value, but they touched me and gave me a way to reach readers.

Whether it be a tiny town uniting to help a student teacher find a duck to finish a project, a Princeton woman’s heartbreak as vandals stole the last gift from a late sister or a case of mistaken van identity that reaffirmed faith in mankind for two women involved, one investigating officer and a reporter, I’ve written about them all. And, I’m better off for it.

They’ve taught me that every person in every place has a story worth sharing, because it’s in the sharing that miracles can happen.

One teacher and her Colorado community know this for sure. As heartbreaking as it was, their story started out fairly small.

More than a year ago, Normandy Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Jewely Del Duca was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer, a case that was so severe that doctors gave her a 10 percent chance of reaching remission and surviving five years.

A fighter, even in the face of such daunting news, Del Duca not only decided she would beat cancer and the odds; she opted to remain at the head of her classroom while undergoing chemotherapy, because her students and the tasks at hand kept her mind off the fierce battle between life and death waged inside her body.

Sometimes carrying a crocheted bag containing her chemotherapy medication, she explained the process to students and used her treatment as lessons in science and perseverance.

Del Duca’s students would soon turn the table on their teacher.

When Del Duca petitioned her insurance provider three times to try a cutting-edge form of chemotherapy that just might save her life, she was denied. Unable to afford the experimental treatment on her own, Del Duca continued fighting the disease with the conventional methods.

Two sisters in her school concluded that choice wasn’t enough. They couldn’t change the corporate minds behind the insurance company’s decision, and they couldn’t tackle the cancer themselves. But, they could help their favorite teacher pay for whatever treatment she believed would best arm her in the fight for her life.

Jenna and Jocie Bradford, then in sixth and fourth grades, asked their parents to give the money they would typically spend on their Christmas gifts to Del Duca in order to start the True Gift Fund.

After opting to give their cherished gifts away last Christmas for someone they loved even more, the Bradford sisters asked their Normandy classmates to follow suit, donating money for at least one of their holiday gifts to Del Duca. They decorated a festive Christmas tree and left it right outside the main office door.

Donors didn’t leave empty handed, either. Each person who gave the equivalent of a gift got a stuffed frog to keep, because Del Duca collects frogs. They also got the assurance that one simple gift could easily change someone else’s life.

The $11,000 the fund drive raised gave Del Duca much more than money. It strengthened her will to live.

“It definitely boosts my energy to do this. The fight, I know I’m not in it by myself. I know that my friends and family want me to fight, and they’re fighting with me,” she told a KUSA 9 News reporter.

After surgeries and a year of chemo, Del Duca knows her combat with cancer isn’t over. Doctors say there’s a good chance it will come back, but for now, there’s no sign of the disease that turned her life upside down and showed her just how far her students would go for her.

For the students, too, the fight left life lessons they’ll never forget.

“Mrs. Del Duca has taught me that life is hard, and you’ve just got to keep working, even when it’s at its hardest point,” Jocie Bradford said, in a recent Today Show story. “You never give up.”

Del Duca, the Bradford sisters and everyone who joined the True Gift Fund effort are living proof that while we may not be able to do great things on our own, we can all do small things in a great way.

Their simple campaign, which started with the Christmas gifts of two preteens, has reached a nation full of hopeful hearts and possibly saved one very special teacher’s life.

There small story wasn’t small at all. It was the making of a miracle.

Tammie Toler is editor of the Princeton Times. Contact her at ttoler@ptonline.net.