In a Class by Herself : Battling Cancer, Monica Polanco Is Honored by Fellow Mater Dei Graduates

When Monica Polanco, bald from chemotherapy and weak with nausea, finished the long, slow walk from her seat to the podium to receive her high school diploma Saturday, her mother, Felipa, burst into tears, her boyfriend whispered her name and then yelled it and her Mater Dei classmates went wild.

When they kept cheering, Polanco, 18, cried.

Fellow graduates shouted her name and clapped and then stood up, bringing the roll-call to a halt until Polanco, leaning on the arm of an usher, was escorted back to her seat.

The ceremony awarding diplomas to 450 graduates was brief, with a welcoming speech, a scriptural reading, music and closing remarks.

But Polanco’s achievement in getting her diploma while battling cancer stood out as an example of the challenges and victories ahead of the graduates.

Before the graduates threw their red mortarboards into the air, Bishop Norman McFarland of the Diocese of Orange reminded them of the wonder of life and exhorted them to be “fully alive to the beauty and truth of His creation.”

That life is wondrous was on the minds of many at the ceremony.

During the ceremony and afterward, the salutatorian, teachers and classmates said that Polanco’s cancer had brought them a new awareness of life’s meaning. Through the months of her treatment, they have learned new definitions of friendship and fear, pain and love.

“Her illness touched everybody here,” said Carol Ann LaRosa, Mater Dei activities director. “It’s a tragedy, but with the tragedy, her friends have seen the important things in life.”

Many of her classmates hugged and kissed Polanco after the ceremony. Some well-wishers were friends; others were acquaintances who just wanted to touch her. While Polanco greeted classmates, her parents and four siblings gathered around, kidding her about seeking attention and videotaping the congratulations of friends.

“I just admire you so much for your courage,” said classmate Kinga Hamerski, 19, leaning over Polanco’s wheelchair. “I wanted to hug you.”

Shereen Pitram, 19, pushed Polanco’s wheelchair after the ceremony at the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine.

“I’ve definitely changed because of this,” Pitram said. “She helps me by always keeping that positive attitude, even when she’s sick.”

By Saturday, Polanco had been out of the hospital for two days, but the side effects of the chemotherapy had not worn off. Sitting in the wheelchair holding a pillow and a roll of tissue, Polanco weathered waves of illness. With a hand to her forehead or at her mouth, she would rock gently until the nausea and dizziness passed.

Every three weeks, Polanco and her mother go to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, where they stay for five days and nights while she receives chemotherapy treatments. After months of chemotherapy, medication and surgery, the tumor is disappearing.

It was the same determination that drove Polanco through the months when she would do her schoolwork and exams at home, between bouts of illness and stays in the hospital. When the assignments were done, friends and family would return them to Mater Dei and bring her more work.

“I’ve never seen her so diligent,” said her boyfriend, Joe Thitathan. “It’s kind of humbling.”

“Right now, she’s pretty sick from the treatment, and it’s kind of breaking my heart,” said Polanco’s mother. “But she will make it. I know God will help us somehow.

Polanco’s ordeal began one day in October, when she told her boyfriend that she was having trouble breathing. Days later, doctors found a malignant tumor on her diaphragm, and Polanco said she suddenly awoke to the seriousness and the sweetness of life.

“Before I got cancer, I took life so lightly,” Polanco said after graduation. “Things just didn’t really matter.

“But afterwards, I realized it’s worth so much more to me. Everything, just everything . . . every little thing means so much more to me.”