Family copes with illnesses, looks to future

PALMVIEW — Five Band-Aids stick to the ceiling in the Martinez family’s two-room house.

The four children, who sleep in the adjacent bedroom with their parents, stuck them there, hoping to keep the rainwater out.

With a beaten-down plywood house, the family depends on makeshift fixes to protect them from the elements.

The Band-Aids plug ceiling holes, and old balled-up T-shirts keep animals from crawling in through the basketball-sized hole under the toilet.

The family of six, who live in a colonia just north of Palmview, survives on about $750 of monthly disability money.

In July, the family’s 45-year-old patriarch, Mariano Martinez, quit the construction job he worked for years. His health left him too weak. He’d managed to work through severe diabetes and kidney problems that required dialysis. Martinez, however, couldn’t work through severe heart problems. He had to quit.

The heart problems prevent him from working his body hard. He must rest regularly and avoid strenuous labor.

His vision has also started to fail. He recently went to a free health fair at a La Joya school, and an eye doctor told him he was going blind in his right eye.

Mariano once supported his family. Now, his health stops him from even driving his own car.

His condition has also strained the family finances. They lack money for regular meals, home repairs and well-fitting clothes for their growing children.

Mariano’s wife, Oralia, worked as a housekeeper, and she taught the children to care for their father’s medical needs. They help him check his blood sugar, which must be monitored to avoid complications associated with his diabetes. They also help with his insulin injections.

Two months after Mariano quit his job, his youngest son, Alvin, woke up with crippling stomach pains. It hurt to eat and he was vomiting. They tried keeping him out of school to rest. The problem didn’t go away.

Alvin went to the hospital, and after a few days of testing, the family faced another health crisis. Doctors found tumors on the boy’s pancreas. The 13-year-old left his eighth-grade class at Domingo Treviño Middle School in La Joya. He now studies at home with the help of a tutor from the school district.

Oralia had to quit housekeeping. Taking care of her two suffering men became a full-time job.

"My husband can’t work, and I can’t work, either," Oralia said in Spanish, sitting in her house. The bathroom, bedroom and main room combined are smaller than a two-car garage.

She shook her head as she spoke and placed a hand on Alvin’s shoulder as he sat next to her in a kitchen chair.

Oralia looked at him and smiled.

"My work is taking care of them," she said.

MOM’S DREAM

Oralia loved cleaning houses.

She bleached toilets, scrubbed kitchen counters and washed windows. She enjoyed all of it.

Every house she cleaned helped her children. It earned money to buy school supplies, clothes without holes and food for dinner.

She loved her job, because she knew these things would help them study. If they studied, they could graduate and go to college. Once they finished college, they could get well-paying jobs that their parents never had.

They could live in houses with stoves instead of hot plates. They could sleep in a bedroom without five family members crowded around them.

She returned home every night happier than when she left.

In her bedroom, there is one bed. Her son Alvin and his 15-year-old brother Jose sleep there. Her daughters Mariana and Brianna, 18 and 12, sleep on the ground beside it. She sleeps beside her husband on a mattress that leans against the wall by day.

The plywood walls keep some of the heat and cold out. Every surface is bare. The walls, ceiling and floor are all wooden. No carpet. No insulation. A battered, window air conditioning unit helps in the summer.

When she lays her head down, she said, she pictures her children with their own families, all asleep in separate beds. The next morning she again scrubs porcelain in someone else’s house. And she loves it.

"If they have a better future, it’s better for me, too," she said in Spanish.

That was before Alvin became sick. She stays home now, fighting for her youngest son to have any future at all.

 ALVIN

Alvin is a shy kid.

When he met Santa Claus, he wouldn’t sit on his lap for a photo. He stood beside him.

He plays soccer outside with his brothers and sisters, and he won’t describe himself as athletic. He earns good grades in school, qualifying for pre-Advanced Placement classes. He says he’s just an OK student, though.

When he woke up in September with excruciating stomach pain, his mother knew it was serious. Alvin wouldn’t fake it.

They tried to get him to eat, and he refused. He had no appetite because of an unrelenting stabbing feeling in his gut. He also struggled to keep food down.

They took him to the hospital. He had massive tumors on his pancreas — growths so large that they pressed on his intestines. Doctors initially suspected cancer. After months of local care and a weeklong trip to Houston, though, doctors have told the family the tumors are benign and likely will not spread.

They have discussed surgery to remove them, but Oralia said they are waiting for more tests and information. She doesn’t know when Alvin will be healthy again. She doesn’t know when he can stop studying at a small table in their home and go back to classes with his friends.

Alvin’s health has improved since his diagnosis. He is still confined to his house, but his color looks good. He studies and occasionally plays soccer in the yard with his siblings. His family questions him constantly about how he feels, always aware that he is still sick.

He also misses school, and he complains often about missing his friends. There is no timetable for his return. Doctors are waiting to see if he keeps feeling healthier, his mother says.

She doesn’t know what will happen next.

Meanwhile, her husband battles diabetes.

In the bedroom they all share, there isn’t much room for possessions. Under a nightstand is a bag full of needles for his insulin injections. Mariano is partially blind in his left eye, and the children must often help him check his blood sugar. This medicine and equipment is costly, stretching the family budget even further.

Public assistance helps with much of the medical costs for Alvin. Mariano’s diabetes medicine, however, is costly and they receive little help for it.

Due to his failing heart and kidney, the father can’t work to pay for the medication. With almost no vision in his left eye, his 18-year-old daughter drives the family car.

 WHAT THEY NEED

Basic tools could help the Martinez family fix the holes in their house.

They could use building supplies to patch the area above the bathtub, which is the one dotted with Band-Aids. A new air conditioning unit would make it easier to sleep in a room with six people and no insulation.

Food and cooking supplies would also be good. Their kitchen, which doubles as a living room, has no stove or counters. There is only a refrigerator and a folding table, which holds a microwave and a hot plate.

They could also use more clothing and school supplies for the children, too.

Oralia says she knows some of her children’s classmates have name-brand clothing and designer accessories. She didn’t raise her kids to want those things, and they would be happy with basic necessities.

She would, however, like one luxury for her son Alvin. As he battles his tumors, he doesn’t ask for much. But he wants an Xbox 360 with the motion sensor game Kinect, and a television to which he can hook up the game
console.

He spends much of his day studying and working at home with his tutor. At night, it would be great for him to have something to do, aside from watching the family’s 13-inch rabbit-eared television.

Zack Quaintance covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4447.

Mariano Martinez

Father; 45 years old; shoes, 10; shirt, medium; pants, 32

Oralia Martinez

Mother, 36 years old; shoes, 8 1/2; shirt, large ; pants, 14

Jose Martinez

Son, 15 years old; shoes, 10; shirt, medium ; pants, 32

Alvin Martinez

Son, 13 years old; shoes, 8 1/2; shirt, small ; pants, 28

Brianna Martinez

Daughter, 12 years old ; shoes, 7 1/2; shirt, medium ; pants, 11

Mariana Martinez

Daughter, 18 years old ; shoes, 8 1/2; shirt, large; pants, 14