Jessie Crescent Cross

Her mother: 'She did do great things ... but I didn't know it was going to be this.' COURTESY PHOTO - Jessie Cross spent most of the last few years battling leukemia, with her mother Crystal Kuite by her side, before she died Tuesday, Sept. 12. Jessie Cross, an 11-year-old Lee Elementary student, died early Tuesday morning after battling leukemia for most of the last three and a half years. "She's taught me how to be strong through all this," said Crystal Kuite, Cross's mother. "I don't know what I would have done without her, and I don't know what I'm going to do without her. But I know she'll always be with me no matter what." In Cross's last days, Kuite shared her daughter's story with the Herald, hoping it would serve as an inspiration to others to "stay strong, and to never give up, and to always hold onto hope." During Cross's fight against leukemia over the past year, Kuite stopped working and spent her days by her daughter's side at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital. As a single mother, she attempted more than once to return to one of her two jobs, but quit each time to tend to her daughter. Both of her bosses at Canby Denny's and Double Aught Ranch have been supportive, and have offered her a position at any time that she's able to return. Though her GoFundMe has not been fully funded in its eight months of existence, Kuite has budgeted those dollars so that she could survive on them and spend her time with her daughter. "The day she was born, I just knew there was something special about her," Kuite said. "My dad told me, when he held her for the first time…'I don't know what it is, but there is something special about her. It's gonna be something big, something great.'" She continued, "My daughter has been such an inspiration to so many people, and she's brought so many people together. She's been an inspiration. She did do great things. My dad was right. But I didn't know it was going to be this." The district prepared to meet the needs of students at Lee Elementary, who lost a peer and a friend in Jessie. Teachers received guidance as to how to talk to students Tuesday, and school counselors from around the district spent the day at Lee to be available for students who wanted to talk to someone, according to Heather Sparks, the district's communication coordinator. A safe room was also available for students to process their emotions or to make cards. "One of the things that is so important in a time like this is to remind children that when things like this happen, people feel all sorts of things—like sadness and fear and anger, and that it's normal to have those feelings," Sparks said. "We care very much about all of our students. We're going to help them navigate this," she said. Cross was diagnosed with leukemia in January 2014 and endured two and a half years of treatment, which she completed in June 2016. But the leukemia returned in November 2016. "When her leukemia came back, it decided to reside in her kidneys because her kidneys were already weakened from prior chemo treatments," Kuite said. "From there…her lungs were bleeding and she was coughing blood and they didn't know why. And they still don't know why." At that time, Cross's doctors found a fungus in her lungs and did an invasive surgery that required a year to heal. But Cross bounced back. "After all that, she was doing well," Kuite said. "She got stronger. I brought her home for three months. We got her from where she could barely walk to where she could ride her bike and do things as a child." At the end of May, Cross received a bone marrow transplant from a donor who was a 100 percent match. The transplant went well and the doctors even released Cross early from the hospital. Five days later, Cross developed a fever and returned to Doernbecher. "From there, it just got worse," Kuite said. Cross had developed CMV, or cytomegalovirus, which can affect major organs in people whose immune systems have been weakened. Once she began to recover from that, she developed BK virus, or polyomavirus hominus 1, which attacked her urinary tract. After that, she had a seizure. "I fought for her on that one," Kuite said. Not long after the seizure, Cross developed a little cough. "It just seemed like it was the air," Kuite said. "And then it went from a small cough to her down in the [Pediatric Intensive Care Unit] within three days, and I haven't talked to her since." Cross developed a disease in her lungs caused from the bone marrow transplant, according to Kuite. Because of the prior damage from the fungus, doctors told Kuite that her daughter's lungs were beyond repair. From that point on, Cross was highly sedated. A breathing machine and the scarring on her lungs were the only things keeping her lungs from collapsing. "I've had to make a couple of decisions," Kuite said. "I made a few decisions that if certain things happen, I don't want them to give her any more pressure support to open up her lungs." She continued, "If she comes back from it, that's at her own will. Let her do what she needs to do. If she doesn't, then she's too tired to fight anymore." While having to make difficult medical decisions, Kuite said that she acted in her daughter's best interests and considered what she would have wanted. She chose to allow Cross to fight as long as she could. "If God's ready to take her home, I know that I gave her that chance, and I never gave up on her, and I did my best. And so did she," Kuite said. Cross passed away on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. "She's fought a really hard fight," Kuite said. No service has been set, as Kuite wants to allow time for healing and for loved ones to travel from far away.