16 Jun Home Is Where the Piggyback Rides Are
Two-year-old Feliciano Montes can no longer see the cartoons he loves or sort the colors of his favorite blocks. Realistically, that may never change. But his favorite game of piggyback rides with Dad hasn’t changed a bit.
“Everything is different since he lost his vision,” says Feliciano’s mom, Jennifer Mendoza. “Except playing with Dad – making him fly, jumping together and piggyback. That’s the one thing that’s still the same.”
Since late October 2024, the Montes family, including Feliciano, has called Ronald McDonald House home between chemotherapy appointments, emergency surgeries and months of both inpatient and outpatient treatment. It’s far from their residence and daily routines in Yuma, but close to the care he needs.
When Feliciano developed a high, unexplained fever shortly before Halloween, Yuma-area doctors recommended further testing in Phoenix. His parents packed quickly, expecting to be home in a few days. Jennifer remembers wondering why Feliciano’s dad insisted on bringing their son’s tiny bat costume. Surely, they’d be back in Yuma to go trick-or-treating, she thought.
But just hours after arriving at the hospital on October 29, doctors diagnosed Feliciano with leukemia. Within a day, the Montes family’s entire world changed, and they’ve yet to return home.
“Even when we were worried about everything else – money, his health, insurance – we were not worried about where to stay or where he could stay safely,” says Feliciano’s dad, who shares a first name with his son. “Ronald McDonald House gave us a home, literally.”
Just a few weeks into outpatient treatment, on November 29, Feliciano woke up in the morning and couldn’t see. The family rushed to the emergency room, where they discovered Feliciano had lost his vision due to a dangerous fungal infection in his brain. Treating the infection required a five-month hospital stay as the two-year-old fought for his life.
Now out of the hospital, Feliciano continues to undergo chemotherapy and receives IV antifungal infusions several times each week. This care would be impossible to manage if the family had to make the eight-hour roundtrip from Yuma each time.
At Ronald McDonald House, he’s close to his doctors and has the comfort of feeling at home between appointments. Despite being blind, he’s walking again, and, most importantly, playing again.
“At the beginning, we thought he wouldn’t be able to play or smile like before,” Jennifer says. “The most helpful thing for us is seeing him do things again that he had stopped doing.”
The Montes family will remain in Phoenix for at least another year and a half as Feliciano’s care continues. Luckily, his dad can work remotely from Ronald McDonald House. Though their journey has been full of uncertainty, they’ve found comfort, friendship and empathy during their extended stay.
“We’ve made so many friends here. Knowing the families, listening to them, seeing them go home with a smile – it’s the best part,” says Feliciano’s dad. “We feel like we’re family here. We feel understood, not judged. We couldn’t ask for more.”
Through it all – the hospital stays, the uncertainty and the long road ahead – Feliciano still lights up for his favorite game. Safely settled at Ronald McDonald House each night, he climbs securely onto his dad’s back, giggling on his piggyback ride down the hallway, and he feels at home.
