Olivia Myers survived premature birth and two heart surgeries before developing an aggressive eye tumor. Her siblings wrote a story about llamas and unicorns on the beach, which singer Crystal Bowersox turned into a song for the family to keep.
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I am Christina Myers. We are in Matthews, North Carolina.
My name is Kevin Reardon. We've got three beautiful daughters. A lot of energy, a lot of life, a lot of compassion for others.
Bradley, our youngest, she's seven. She's headstrong and funny. Olivia, she's 10. She is compassionate, caring. It's never about her. You know, she's always thinking of everyone else and she's just so genuine and strong. That's just the word we always go to. Natalie, she's 14. She's very independent, smart. She kind of looks over both of.
Them and great role model.
Yeah. If I had to describe Olivia's life in a nutshell, I would say she does not have a life of a typical 10 year old. So Olivia was born 10 and a half weeks premature. So she was 29 and a half weeks gestation age. We were on a coming home plan. She was in the special care nursery at our local hospital. We noticed a little sound, almost sounded like a kitten purr when she was breathing. And later found out that she had a double aortic arch. I think it was around 45 days old. She had her first heart surgery and then she came home at five years old. We discovered that the aortic arch had reformed by connecting to scar tissue. So she had her second heart surgery at six years old. For three years she was a healthy, normal kid.
But this past November, we were sitting around the dinner table one night and Olivia's eye had been watering just a little bit. And we asked her if she was okay and she said, yeah, I'm fine. People keep asking me why I'm crying. A week later, it hadn't cleared up at all. It was even getting worse. Her eye was bulging and looked swollen and her eyes started kind of pushing out toward more of her face. Doctor said on Tuesday, go check out this ophthalmologist went on Tuesday and ophthalmologist said, get her to the ER now. There's a mask behind her eye. We need to take a look at it.
That's the day it all changed. It was a tumor behind her right eye about the size of a golf ball. It was already a stage four. This type of cancer that she has is so aggressive.
After some scans following the procedure, they found cancer cells in her shoulder, her spine, her hip, and then a gland in her neck.
Never in a million years did we expect, after all she had already been through, to now have her have to fight for her life, for cancer. What, what story did your kids write? They wrote about llamas and unicorns on the beach.
Action.
It's about llamas and unicorns because I really like llamas and she really likes unicorns. And we're at the beach one day, and a beam of light just comes down onto the sand, and it smells like cotton candy outside. And all these unicorns appear, all these llamas, and they're all different colors. And at the end, we pick one llama and one unicorn to go home with us, and they each have a special name. We love the beach, and we love to pick up shells and we love to do sandcastles. The beach, it's just really nice. It's relaxing down there because you can hear the ocean. I'm just happy about all the stuff that's happening right now. I think she's very happy, too. I think you can see it in her face and just how she's acting. I think she's very happ.
I think the value we see of just letting their imagination run wild is Olivia doesn't have to talk about cancer, and Bradley doesn't have to be in the shadow of Olivia's cancer. So this is just a great opportunity to let them just be kids and not be overshadowed by whatever their illness is.
Smile and laugh and get away from reality for a little while. It's a huge deal.
My name is Crystal bowersox, and I'm a singer songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee. Music has always been a part of my life. For me, it was always the best form of catharsis. My musical journey has taken me to some incredible places. I was on American Idol season nine back in 2010, and it changed my life forever. Today we're here at sound emporium studios in Nashville, Tennessee, with where I will be recording a song called llama and unicorn heaven, based on the story written by Olivia and Bradley. I think we can all learn from Olivia and Bradley in their story and imagine llamas and unicorns falling from the sky. That, to me, sounds like a great day. It's the best day ever. I hope Olivia and Bradley love this song. I hope it makes them smile. I hope it makes them want to dance and sing along. I really hope it brings them a lot of joy. Hi, Ms. Olivia. How are you?
I'm good. How are you?
I'm good.
It's so nice to meet you.
You too. This is our beautiful house.
I want to sing a song for you.
Okay.
Where should I go?
This is the living room.
All right. Well, your story was amazing. I loved reading it and getting to know the characters, and I was really excited to meet you all. And I have a song. I think it captures your story all right.
It was the best day Best day ever golden sun rays, cotton candy Weather at the beach house with my whole fan it was the best day I ever had we built a castle A big sand castle Then the wind came and everything unraveled the sky turned bright down came a beam of light and everyone smiled at it Was my unicorn heaven they came from somewhere up high it was something to see One for you, one for me and this fluffy rainbow colored delight and I know everything will be all right it was the best day the best day ever.
I hope you like it.
I love it.
Oh, good.
It's quite an honor to be a part of this. This process. Creating this song gives her family and her something to have and hold forever. It's a wonderful thing that Sing youg Story does.
It's gonna be our family theme song. Like the girls love. When I roll down the windows and crank up the music and we have dance parties and sing in the car while we're driving.
And it makes me feel happy that we have our own song. I think my friends will be a bit jealous.
