03 Nov The Battaglia Family

In 2002, at age 17, I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. My family found ourselves in a new world of medical treatments far away from home, as I was treated by Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago. My parents were incredibly grateful for the Ronald McDonald house as it provided them a home away from home while they cared for me during my treatments. They still speak often of the friends they met there and the impact that House had on their lives.

I never truly understood how impactful and life changing the Ronald McDonald House was for my parents, until I too became a parent of a critically ill child. At 25 weeks pregnant my water broke and I was rushed to MUSC via ambulance from our home in Beaufort, S.C. Six days later, I delivered our daughter, Eleanor Vivian, at 26 weeks. She weighed 1 pound 15 ounces, measuring 12.5 inches long. The next 108 days my husband and I spent cribside as we cared for our daughter and watched her grow. The Ronald McDonald House in Charleston became our home, the staff there became our friends. Each morning as I walked through the house on my way back to the hospital, someone would ask about Eleanor with genuine care and a gentle compassion. It was so helpful in our journey to be surrounded by others who cared about us and understood that our whole world was across the street being cared for by the amazing professionals at MUSC.

When the day finally came, and we were preparing to leave the House to take our daughter home it hit me. This is the house that love built. This is the house that supports you in your weakest, scariest, most vulnerable times. This is the house that also cheers you on, and offers you so many small pieces of normalcy in a time that is anything but normal. As we left the house, with tears of joy in our eyes, we knew we were no longer leaving “the house” we were leaving “our house” and we are forever grateful for everything.