Community rallies to give dying girl a birthday celebration to remember
STOCKTON — There is no princess who is more beautiful and brave than 8-year-old Mirella Quintero.
Wearing a flowing blue gown and a sparkling tiara on her head, she was guided by her mother, Tiffanie Quintero, into a hall at the Lincoln Presbyterian Church on Saturday for a surprise ninth birthday party. It was attended by hundreds of friends, family and members of the community who have rallied behind the girl in her fight against cancer.
The story behind the daylong princessthemed bash is both inspiring and heartbreaking. Since 2015, the Mable Barron Elementary student has battled an extremely rare form of brain cancer known as Primitive Neuroectodernal Tumors of the Central Nervous System (NCS-PNET).
Doctors recently gave parents Tiffanie and Manuel Quintero the grim news that Mirella has only days to two months to live. They are certain that Mirella will not live long enough to see her actual birthday on Aug. 16.
So despite the triple-digit heat, hundreds of people came together to make sure Mirella had a celebration that she will never forget.
“The time that we do have with her, it’s been magical,” Tiffanie Quintero said Friday. “We have been making a lot of good memories.”
One of the lead organizers for the party, Kelley Hale, said everything from tables, chairs, balloons, pizza, cupcakes, lemonade, lollipops and the like were all donated. Hale, a pastor at Lifesong Church and family friend of the Quinteros, had help both locally and from around the state to organize the event in an astonishing four days.
“Hardly any money was spent ... I had to turn away vendors,” Hale said. “When you do something bigger than yourself, we’re all so thankful our community for coming together — this says a lot for the people attending here.”
Debbie Carver, an advocate for a childhood cancer awareness group who lives in San Diego, said she was contacted by Tiffanie Quintero about an idea to celebrate Mirella’s ninth birthday two months in advance.
“I cannot tell you what came over me,” Carver wrote in an email. “I immediately felt I had to do something.”
She started contacting flower shops, bakeries, shaved ice trucks, photographers, T-shirt shops and others for their services. Nothing Bundt Cakes provided 150 “Bundtinies,” Walmart donated a Cinderella-themed cake, and J&S Flowers on West Harding Way made Mirella’s wrist corsage. The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit showed up, as did Disney princesses like Ariel, Belle, Cinderella and Minnie Mouse.
“There are so many good people there in Stockton that didn’t hesitate to jump in and provide their services,” Carver wrote.
Mirella’s party also featured a photo booth, karaoke, plenty of glitter and a DJ playing classic Disney songs, along with hits by Michael Jackson, Mirella’s favorite artist.
“I’ve been told she’s an old soul,” Tiffanie Quintero said. “She’s not the kind of kid that is always on a phone. She’s always coloring, and if she is on a phone, she’s listening to Michael Jackson and dancing. She discovered him on her own on YouTube.”
Mirella’s courageous battle with brain cancer began when she was 6 years old. After being admitted to hospitals in Lodi, Sacramento and San Francisco, she was referred to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University, widely recognized as one of the best treatment centers in the world for her condition.
A year of several difficult rounds of radiation and chemotherapy followed and she was found to be tumor-free. As she was approaching one full year out of treatment, Tiffanie Quintero said, a routine MRI scan in February showed a new tumor growth.
It wasn’t until this month when the family was told that Mirella would have less than two months to live.