ST. LOUIS _ First off, Laila says we should all take a deep breath.
So, let's all take a deep breath. ...
Needed that.
It was refreshing. Nourishing. The fear and fright of the new coronavirus can overwhelm a person. But as 11-year-old Laila Anderson said, with her perspective infused by perpetual perseverance: "This will pass. ... We also have to remember it's not just ourselves _ the whole world is going through this. ... And we will all get through it together."
Laila is St. Louis' little fighter. She battled the rare disease HLH, a systemic inflammatory syndrome that can be fatal to some people. She received a bone marrow transplant in January 2019, and her story inspired the Blues, whose own story inspired the city. With the new coronavirus affecting people with vulnerable immune systems, some wondered if Laila was healthy and safe. She is, her mother and father asserted in phone interviews Wednesday. Laila has been able to get immunization shots and her ANC numbers (absolute neutrophil count) are "in a good spot," said her mom, Heather.
Laila went back to school last fall with the other kids _ sixth grade, Parkway South Middle _ and "life was like the next person who's 11," Laila said by phone, in reference to a fun school year of classes and sleepovers and trips to the trampoline park ("That's the thing now," she explained).
But now, like so many of us, she's staying at home and taking precautions.
"I can't tell you how many times people ask: 'How do you feel being isolated again?' " Laila said. "And it doesn't really bother me that we're kind of isolated. We have to stay home and not go places? Oh, I've been there, done that."
Or, as her mother put it: "After being in isolation for six months to save your life, this all just seems like a vacation."
Laila did share that her "heart hurts a little" that the National Hockey League season is on pause. Hockey was her favorite thing even before she got sick. Her family has season tickets. And often when the Blues were on the road, she and her dad would watch from Town Square Pub N Grub, while they devoured some chicken wings.
Then, hockey became medicine. And the Blues became her nurses. She built genuine friendships with Alexander Steen, Patrick Maroon and, of course, Colton Parayko.
"She said the other day," Heather recalled, " 'Mommy, those people reached out when I was in isolation, and now we're all in isolation, so everyone should be reaching out to each other to make sure we're all OK. Or if we can help one another. We're all in it together.'
"And I tell her, 'I know we miss hockey, but let's go back and watch the run for the Cup again, let's get pumped for when it does start back up. And we can go outside and take a walk, nobody's asking you to be trapped in your home. You can go out and smell the air, you can go out and feel the rain on your face. Like, you're not trapped in a hospital room by yourself, trying not to be sick and trying to eat food. We are not at that place.
"The whole world has just taken a bit of a timeout.'"
