‘A light in any room’: Harlem family mourns 13-year-old
HARLEM, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A local family is spreading the word about cancer in children and the signs to look out for after a 13-year-old girl died suddenly from undiagnosed leukemia.
We talk with the parents of Julia “Juju” Chavez, who says childhood cancer screening is now their mission.
Now her family is mourning her life that was gone so quickly, suddenly she is being rushed to the hospital and doctors are fighting to save her life.
“You don’t expect your full-of-life 13-year-old to just disappear in 12 hours,” Jenna Randall, Juju’s mother says.
Chavez, known by her family as Juju was a light in so many lives.
Randall says, “She was just a beautiful soul.”
But on Sunday she was taken by ambulance to the hospital where doctors told her family she had an advanced and rare form of leukemia, gone undetected for months.
“We didn’t even know what to think about leukemia, how? how,” Randall says.
She had internal bleeding in her brain and other organs, doctors did what they could, but she soon ed away around 1:15 a.m. Monday morning.
Ernie Randall, Juju’s grandfather, says. “Everything just happened so fast. I think that’s the brutal part about it is we didn’t get to say we’ll miss you or bye.”
The family knows Juju is in a better place.
“The lord did what he needed to do he must have needed a good angel because he got one,” her grandparents say.
Juju now is gone but those closest to her will never forget who she was.
“She’s so lively and bubbly, cheerful with that red hair just a little sassy just enough to make it cute, not talk back sassy just cute,” her grandmother, Lisa Randall says.
“She was perfect and she’ll stay perfect,” her mother says.
Moving forward the family says they’re looking to continue to spread Juju’s story and to spread awareness about some of the symptoms.
We talked to a pediatrician today who said if symptoms like fever, fatigue, headaches or bruising keep persisting, be open to your doctor and keep following up if symptoms don’t go away.
We talked with her family and they say Juju loved Pokemon, unicorns, and rainbows, she loved the bright colors which are why they encouraged everyone at her funeral today to wear pink or other colors of the rainbow.
Juju would sing and dance every opportunity she had, she was a straight A and B student who never got into any trouble, her mom says now the whole family just misses JuJu. A 13- year old who never met a stranger and wanted everyone to be her friend.
Jenna Randall, Julia’s mother, says, “Julia was a light in any room, she never knew a stranger she walked up to anybody and ‘hi how are you’, if you’re a woman ‘oh you’re so beautiful’ she just loved people, she was the first person to make friends with somebody, she saw somebody that was sitting alone or didn’t seem to have friends around she jumped into action and had to know them.”
We will have more on how the family is ing Juju and what they’re looking to do moving forward to make sure they’ll never forget her.
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