Community rallies to help food truck family’s ill toddler

Antioch police and others partner to host fundraiser on Saturday for Rodríguez family

ANTIOCH >> Adrian Rodríguez is a typical energetic toddler who loves to have fun and play with his younger sister. But in February, his life took a dramatic turn when his mother noticed a lump on his neck during a weekend trip to the snow.

His mother, Markelle Rodríguez, said she saw the lump moving as he breathed. After returning home, he was rushed to the emergency room where X-rays revealed a huge mass on his chest.

“I described it to my mom like an out-of-body experience,” Markelle Rodríguez said of that moment she learned of her son’s Stage 4 leukemia. “You are listening to the doctors talk and tell you what needs to happen. You just want them to start fixing things.”

One of the first things the parents did upon hearing the bad news was to stop operating their popular Tacuache’s food truck to reduce any risk of getting COVID-19 and transmitting it to their severely immunocompromised child. Adrian is undergoing intensive chemotherapy, which weakens his immune system, his parents explained.

“We were heartbroken to hear the doctor’s diagnosis,” the toddler’s father, Adrian Rodríguez Sr., said. “We think we may be out of work for six months. But, it could be longer. We will have to see how Adrian does with the treatments he’s receiving.”

The first month after falling ill, the toddler could no longer walk, but after a couple of rounds of chemotherapy and his first blood transfusion last week, his family says he is finally walking again, in remission and getting his strength back though he will need more chemotherapy still.

Meanwhile, the community has mobilized to help the An