The Tampa Tribune

June 10, 1999

      Joey Ruiz doesn't want a wish.

       He wants a miracle.

      On Monday, the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Sarasota/Tampa Bay will send the 14 year old, his adoptive mother, Sonia Ruiz, and his grandfather, Jerinomo, to Lourdes, France, in hopes of curing Joey's inoperable brain tumor.

      Their destination is not a hospital, but a spiritual place of healing.

      "It's the most unusual and emotional wish we've gotten," said Tampa lawyer Robert Herce, board present of the foundation. "Most kids want to go to Disneyland or meet a celebrity. Joey wants a chance to live."

      The $10,000 weeklong trip is being financed by Steve Yerrid, another Tampa lawyer. Yerrid earned millions last year as part of the "Dream Team" in the successful lawsuit against the tobacco industry and wants to give some of the money to programs that benefit children in the community.

      He was struck by Joey's request.

      "We can't determine what a child's future will be or how long they'll live," he said. "But we can determine the quality of life they'll have."

      It doesn't matter to Yerrid that the wish is so intangible.

      "It's all about hope. Hope is what makes all of us look forward to tomorrow."

      Next week, the Ruiz family will pray at the grotto in the foothills of the French Pyrenees where many Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared 18 times in 1858 to a village girl named Bernadette Soubirous. She became a saint, and the site attracts 5 million visitors annually.

      Some go out of curiosity. Others, like Joey, go for a cure.

      "I feel like God let me have this brain tumor because he wants me to do something good with my life," Joey said.

      Besides, he doesn't want his mom to lose him, he said. They already have been through enough together. "She'd be devastated."

      Indeed, the story of Joey and his mother, a Valrico pediatrician, has been tumultuous. Sonia Ruiz met the boy when he was 4 and in foster care, admitted to the hospital for pneumonia and possible neglect.

      Joey bounced among foster homes and family members for the next eight years. She saw him again when he was 12, and her heart went out to him when things didn't work out with a prospective adoptive family.

      "I knew he had potential, but I couldn't convince anyone else," Ruiz said. She worked on an agreement with the Florida Department of Children and Families to spend time with Joey on weekends.

      Last year, the 48 year old single woman began proceedings to adopt him.

      Their life together wasn't always rosy. Joey often was "spirited and wild," she recalled, and took Ritalin for behavioral problems. He also complained of headaches and had difficulties at school.

      The pediatrician became suspicious and took the seventh-grader for tests. On Jan. 29, the worst was confirmed: He had glioblastoma multiforme, an adult type of malignant tumor in the middle of his brain.

      Surgeries on Feb. 1 and 3 removed a mass the size of a lemon. However, an orange-sized tumor remains lodged in his brain, and doctors say removal is too risky.

      If there's a bright side to the medical horror, it has been the transformation in Joey. He has become calm, focused and spiritual, Ruiz said.

      "There isn't an ounce of resentment about what's happened to him, either now or everything before this," she said. "He's a fighter all the way."

      Enter the Make-a-Wish chapter, which has fulfilled the fantasies of nearly 600 Tampa Bay area children with life-threatening conditions since forming in 1986. Joey said he didn't think twice about what he wanted.

      "Someone brought my grandma holy water from Lourdes when she had pneumonia. She was close to dying. Then she drank it and she was cured."
Joey hopes the same will happen to him.

      "He is a kid filled with faith," said the Rev. Julio Rivero of St. John Vianney Catholic Church in St. Pete Beach. Rivero, who conducts healing Masses every Tuesday night at 7 at his church, is Joey's spiritual director.

      "When you have faith, your prayers are answered," the priest said. "Whether you get a spiritual healing or a physical healing, God does hear your prayers. Joey is open to whatever God wants for him."

      As a physician and a Catholic, Ruiz said she is torn. The science side of her says the brain tumor won't simply disappear. But her spiritual side believes miracles can - and do - happen.

      This has been a true test of faith," she said.

      For Joey, whose illness forced him to quit school in March, it's a walk of faith. Every night, he and his mother pray together for the miracle that he believes will happen in Lourdes. He said that gives him the strength to deal with what many call a doubtful future.

      He doesn't think about death.

      "God doesn't give anything bad," he said. "If it's bad, it's for a reason."

05/10/80