Published: August 05, 2007 11:36 am         

Believe in Tomorrow retreat was ‘a blessing’

4-year-old leukemia patient and his family relax at lake

MCHENRY — For families dealing with a young child with a life-threatening illness, finding a retreat from the stress can be difficult, and when these families have someone in the military, it can be harder still.

“Getting to stay there was a blessing to us,” Jacqueline Mikles said of her recent stay at the Believe in Tomorrow home on Marsh Mountain. “Jacob, our 4-year-old, has leukemia, and we’d been in the hospital for seven months straight.”

Mikles, whose husband, Christopher, is a senior airman with the U.S. Air Force, stayed at the house from July 22 to 28 with her family, and said she enjoyed the quiet, open atmosphere it provided, and the temporary break from the stress and headaches of the hospitals and treatments.

She said that she’d been taking Jacob to the Walter Reed Medical Center, where she became aware of Believe in Tomorrow, a group that offers not only hospital housing for families of children with life-threatening illness, but also has four vacation homes, including the one in McHenry.

Brian Morrison, founder of Believe in Tomorrow, said that because two of the three military hospitals that treat pediatric cancer patients are on the East Coast, the organization finds it helps a number of military families.

“While health care for these families is good or adequate, the support is needed,” Morrison said. “Often, the support group, like friends and family, are not where the hospitals for these children are located.”

Morrison said that because of this, Believe in Tomorrow has served as a sort of support system, and at times, like that last full week in July, it happens that all their vacation homes are being used by military families.

The house on Marsh Mountain, he explained, is often selected by families who seek serenity and quiet, a short relief from anxieties.

“It helps them to re-energize and connect with one another,” Morrison said.

He added that he felt that with military families, there is the additional concern of having a family member serving overseas.

However, Mikles said that when a child’s condition becomes a level of priority that Jacob had become, family members are immediately flown home or they are not shipped out. She added that her husband was slated to be deployed, but those orders had been delayed around the time of Jacob’s diagnosis.

Mikles said that the trip was what her family needed. While visiting, she said they went horseback riding and took a pontoon ride on Deep Creek Lake.

For now, she said, her family’s trying to get back to some sense of normalcy.

Sarah Moses can be reached at smoses@times-news.com.