Instead of an Award, a Burial

Had she lived, Sarahi Cuecuecha would have received her classroom’s perseverance award this week.

The 9-year-old with a wide, crooked smile was always first in line each morning to get into her Oxnard classroom. She never forgot to turn in her homework. And her classmates loved her.

But she didn’t get the chance to walk to the front of her class to be honored.

Sarahi died Monday at Ventura County Medical Center after a two-year struggle with leukemia.

“She was just the best,” said her fourth-grade teacher, Isabel Olachea. “No matter what she was facing, she came to school each morning eager to learn.”

Now her parents want to send their daughter’s body for burial to their native Tlaxcala state in central Mexico. But the couple, a restaurant dishwasher and a stay-at-home mom, can’t pay the $3,200 funeral and shipping costs.

So Sarahi’s teacher, classmates and supporters all the way up to the superintendent are rallying to raise money for the family, helping them through the most trying of times.

“It just seemed like they needed a hand,” said Oxnard Elementary Supt. Richard Duarte, announcing Wednesday that the school district’s nonprofit educational foundation would take the fund-raising lead. “It’s a difficult time for them, and if we in a small way can help, we want to try.”

Although she was born in Ventura, Sarahi lived in Tlaxcala for several years before her parents, Amado and Cristina, brought her back to the United States a few years ago in search of better medical care.

Through tears in her sparse Oxnard living room, a place of family photos and a Christmas tree without gifts, Cristina Cuecuecha said they didn’t know Sarahi had leukemia until they took her to Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles two years ago.

Cuecuecha said her dark-haired little girl was brave when she learned she had the disease, traveling as often as once a week to L.A. for chemotherapy.

Cuecuecha said her daughter seemed to be handling the grueling regimen just fine. She was looking forward to Christmas.

But Sunday, after she lost her appetite and complained of pain, her parents rushed her to the Ventura public hospital and learned her body was ravaged by infection. She died the next day.

“This is something that turned from one day to the next,” the mother said, sobbing. “She was a very intelligent girl, a little girl who smiled easily and loved to read and write. She is going to be missed by her entire family.”

She leaves behind two sisters and a brother.

She also will be missed at Elm Street School in south Oxnard, where her classmates have started collecting money in a glass jar to help the family pay funeral expenses.

“I explained to them the parents didn’t have any money, and they just started pulling money out of their pockets and putting it in the jar,” Olachea said of her fourth- and fifth-grade students. The youngsters also wrote notes to Sarahi’s parents, saying they were sorry for the couple’s loss.

Olachea said Sarahi was new to the school this year after being home-schooled for two years. The teacher said the girl was happy to be out of the house and making friends, even though she was shy about removing the hats she wore to cover short hair that came after chemotherapy.

Sarahi regularly missed Thursdays to make those chemotherapy appointments, but often was back in her seat the next day ready to work, the teacher said. Then, last Friday, she wasn’t.

“It’s heartbreaking, it really is,” Olachea said. “I just didn’t expect this to happen. She never acted sick. She always looked so happy.”

Contributions can be made in care of the Cuecuecha family to the Oxnard Elementary School District Educational Foundation, P.O. Box 623, Oxnard CA 93031.