They thought it was the flu, maybe a virus, that was slowing down their 9-year-old daughter.
Or maybe it was the hot, sticky July air that was making Jordyn Bonam stop after running four laps when she usually would go 12.
One of the first times LaKeisha and DeWayne Bonam noticed the effects of the brain tumor that would end their daughter's life six months later, Jordyn — hands at her side, chest heaving — looked tired.
She usually hopped onto the track, raced around in circles and left.
Maybe she was just being lazy and didn't want to run that day, her mom thought.
This was the girl who, when she was 8 years old, played on the 10-year-olds' soccer team. The girl who played so hard in youth soccer, she got two concussions.
Jordyn, 10, a fourth-grader at Columbian Elementary School, died Jan. 26. Services were Feb. 2 at Morning Star Baptist Church, 2019 Burdette St., and were attended by about 400 people.
LaKeisha Bonam said that at first doctors thought her daughter was dehydrated. But walking around her room at Children's Hospital & Medical Center, Jordyn started wobbling, looked off balance.
The doctors did scans and discovered an inoperable tumor on Jordyn's brain stem.
The Bonams were told Jordyn's condition could deteriorate quickly.
About 10 days after Jordyn jogged around the Millard North High School track in early July, she couldn't talk or walk or see.
The Bonams knew the eight-week radiation trial at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., in July and August was a long shot.
They were aware that the steroids that were reducing the swelling in her head — but adding 26 pounds to her 74-pound frame — wouldn't get rid of the tumor. But they wanted enough time for their youngest daughter to have some firsts.
First dance. First crush. First school graduation, from sixth grade.
"Those firsts that kids look forward to and that kids should experience," her mother said.
The radiation helped Jordyn walk, talk and sit up again for a time, but brain scans showed the tumor never largely subsided.
At school, Jordyn could no longer write right-handed because of the tumor, so she learned to write left-handed.
"We wanted to help her, and she just wanted to do it herself as much as she could do," Principal Kathy Nelson said. "She had such determination, such drive."
Nelson remembers Jordyn always grinning and surrounded by friends, even when she came back last fall in a wheelchair.
"I think of that little girl running and playing and kicking the ball and jumping around," Nelson said, "but, you know, that little girl who came in the wheelchair was so brave and so strong."
As the months passed, the family started to care less about extending Jordyn's time and more about managing her pain.
Jordyn came out of her bedroom less often, so the family started eating dinner there, and Jordyn's 11-year-old twin sisters, Danell and Kendall, started doing their homework in her room.
Jordyn began sleeping more, not waking up for meals.
Her diet was limited to applesauce or yogurt.
Then she couldn't swallow. Couldn't drink.
About 1:10 a.m. on Jan. 26, her mom placed towels on Jordyn's head, as she did nightly. She stretched her daughter's arms and legs, massaged her arms and feet.
Her mom held Jordyn in her arms, and Jordyn closed her eyes for the last time.
"We wanted her to be able to have firsts. ... That was our goal," her mother said. "It just didn't happen. It just didn't happen."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1074, jonathon.braden@owh.com
twitter.com/jonathonbraden
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