Sees First Ballet : Dying Girl, 10, Has Wish to Be Ballerina

“There is one thing that I wish to be--it is a ballerina.

“I will have purple ballet slippers that lace up and pink tights. I will be wearing a pink leotard and a flowing purple skirt.

“I will be dancing ‘The Nutcracker’. . . .

“Watch a rainbow, because that’s what I will dance on.”

Melinda Lawrence, 10, made that wish last year in a hand-bound book that she wrote and illustrated. She has wanted to be a ballerina ever since she can remember.

But dancing is something Melinda Lawrence will never do.

The cherubic fifth-grader spends most days in a motorized wheelchair. She is dying of muscular dystrophy, a disease that attacks her muscles.

Advanced Disease

She was born with the mysterious disease. It is so advanced now that her parents fear that the next time she gets a respiratory illness, she will not survive.

In her book, Melinda titles the chapter about being a ballerina “What I Wish To Be in Heaven.”

Recently, she got an earthly alternative.

A nonprofit group called the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which tries to ease the suffering of seriously ill children, provided Melinda and her family, who live in the Washington suburb of Herndon, Va., with a trip to the closest professional ballet performance its organizers could find. That was the Pennsylvania Ballet’s rendition of “Coppelia” at the Shubert Theater.

Melinda got to meet the ballet’s principal dancers, Tamara Hadley and William DeGregory. Melinda, her parents, William and Barbara, and her 8-year-old sister, Jennifer, got a backstage tour. They also watched a rehearsal.

Pink Outfit

The ballet gave Melinda a bouquet of flowers and an all-pink version of her wish outfit--tights, leotard, ruffled tutu and toe shoes.

The family watched the full performance from a box that overlooks the stage. Melinda, who had never seen a real ballet before, was thrilled.

When the ballet was over, the dancers turned toward Melinda’s box and bowed--several times. Then the orchestra conductor bowed to her.

Melinda says she’s not shy about all the attention. She said she wrote her book, called “My Life,” for “everybody.” Her parents have reproduced 10 copies of the 16-page book, and Melinda hand-colors the Xerox copies of her drawings on each page.

A television crew is filming a segment on Melinda for “60 Minutes.” Her mother says Melinda used to think about helping adults learn to communicate better with dying children. Melinda says that she is not so sure she wants to do that now and that she has no plans for another book.

“At the time, we were all occupied with dealing with dying,” said Barbara Lawrence. “Now, we’re thinking more about living.”