When Joey Su’a takes the football field as an offensive lineman for Arizona State University during the next several seasons, he’ll wear the number 54 – not for good luck, stats or tradition, but to honor the 54 days he spent in the hospital fighting...
Yuma mom of four Isabel Garcia arrived in Phoenix by helicopter on a warm, sunny afternoon in June 2024 with nothing. No car, no local family support, nothing but the clothes on her back – and her 4-month-old daughter Amayah. When she woke up that morning,...
Already the parents of a 3-year-old son and a 1½-year-old daughter, a positive pregnancy test in the fall of 2024 led Boston-area residents Rachel and Marco Vargas to believe they were expecting their third child. But during Rachel’s first ultrasound, the astonished sonographer went suddenly...
Adoptive mom Claudia knows the favorite songs of most of the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In fact, you can often find the professional singer singing lullabies to calm and soothe her daughter Thea and the other newborns nearby. Since Thea was born...
As the sun rises on a beautiful Saturday morning in December, the Dobson House kitchen at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central and Northern Arizona is filled with the sounds of Haley Marin and members of her extended family cheerfully chopping, stirring, and preparing another...
Godsway Dorlah and Jacinta Frimprong’s lives changed in an instant when they learned their unborn daughter, Jessica, would need life-saving open-heart surgery as soon as she was born. As one surgery became multiple surgeries, and Baby Jessica’s hospital stay spanned seven full months, Ronald McDonald...
As teenagers, Johnny Acosta and Maria Bautista met while working at a Yuma-area McDonald’s more than 17 years ago. Little did they know they would fall in love, marry, start a family… and one day rely on Ronald McDonald House Charities as a home away...
A situation where a child with autism needs not one, but two heart transplants by the age of eight could easily be devastating for a family. But the story of resilient Florence-area mother, Jill Schwartz and her daughter Alonna, is one of hope, support and...
Diana Beagley didn’t realize how exhausted she was. The mother of four had spent a week attempting to sleep bedside at the hospital, while her infant son Caspian received around-the-clock care to save his life. When a room became available at Ronald McDonald House Charities' Roanoke...
Five-year-old Cash loves building miniature volcanoes with his mom, Tamara Lozano. So, she figured out a way to build a science project volcano in his hospital room during his weeks of inpatient hospital care to correct issues with his heart. Engineering and watching the bedside eruption...
