PHILADELPHIA -- Lily Walker, 17, was in eighth grade when she suddenly lost weight and suffered headaches so severe she’d throw up. Her mom thought it was stress, or maybe a virus. After the double vision set in, a doctor told the family to head to an emergency room.
Her cousin, Peter Cellucci, then 7, stopped eating two years later. He suddenly needed to grip the banister with both hands to walk down the stairs at school. When he could no longer step into the bathtub without losing his balance, a doctor also told his parents to take him to a hospital ER.
Lily and Peter’s mothers are second cousins living 17 miles apart in the Philadelphia suburbs. Since December 2020, their families have shared a journey that has tested the limits of medical understanding, as well as their shared Catholic faith.
