Time outdoors will be reprieve from sad loss

Joycelene Torres and her 5-year-old brother, Daniel, crowd around a collection of pictures of their little brother, Gabriel, who in one photo is slumped over asleep, about to fall into his birthday cake. In other photos, he is standing by a SpongeBob SquarePants pinata or wearing a lion costume for Halloween. But these celebrations would be the only ones Gabriel would have in his short life.

In October 2003, Joycelene’s mother, Jolene Torres, came home from her job as a school bus driver to find 14-month-old Gabriel disoriented and ill. Too afraid to call for an ambulance herself, she ran to a neighbor’s for help.

Torres’ boyfriend at the time had badly beaten Gabriel, and he died at the hospital from head trauma.

“It was hard for all of us, but Joycelene always wanted to help take care of him,” Torres said. “She wanted to be a big sister. He’s their guardian angel, and not a day goes by that we don’t talk about him.”

Joycelene, 7, would ask her mother how to make bottles for Gabriel and help change his diapers and teach him how to walk. After her brother’s death, Joycelene and Daniel stayed with their grandparents and only recently came to live with their mother in a friend’s apartment.

Joycelene said that she’s had trouble sleeping in her new home, where she shares a twin bed with her mother, brother and her two Cabbage Patch dolls. Gabriel’s ashes sit in a gold urn in their bedroom, and the children pray for him every night.

An aspiring artist, Joycelene paints portraits of Gabriel with angels, butterflies and ladybugs. Her two Cabbage Patch dolls accompany her wherever she goes, and she takes care of two pet rabbits, Joey and Snow White, feeding them lettuce and carrots.

In August, Joycelene will be among the 12,000 children who will be able to go to camp this summer, thanks to the $2.1 million raised in the summer camp campaign last year. Donations this season will ensure that just as many deserving children get the camp experience next summer.

Joycelene will attend camp for the first time at the Stanley Ranch Camp, a 200-acre campground in Castaic run by the Woodcraft Rangers. She is looking forward to toasting marshmallows, sleeping in cabins and scavenging for insects.

“I can have fun by running around and playing games, scaring bears and scaring rattlesnakes,” she said, her eyes growing wide. “I think there might be ladybugs, and I want to run around and look for them. But I’m going to miss my mom and especially Gabriel.”

The annual fundraising campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $1.2 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make donations by credit card, go to latimes.com/summercamp.

To send checks, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash.

Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.

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