of a sweatshirt, they upgraded to a
long-sleeve T-shirt, which was a pretty
big deal.

But their B’not Mitzvah is more
than just a party, and they recognize
that, especially through their mitzvah
project. While planning the blood drive, Ju-
lia thought of the kids and adults out
there like her and how the blood do-
nations saved her life.

“We thought it was a really nice
way to give back to the people that
helped by helping other people who
needed those transfusions,” Remi
said. “Julia’s my twin sister and she
means so much to me since I’ve been
with her my entire life. It’s really nice
that I’m potentially helping other
people who were in the same situa-
tion I was in, to have a family member survive bad diseases and
not have to face tragedy.

“It’s really sweet that I don’t know who these people are but I’m
still saving their life with the blood.”
Julia remembers the physical therapy, but not much else. Remi recalls
three stuffed animals their grandmother gave them: a whale, dolphin
and seal. It might not seem like much, but she said it represented some-
thing that could have been very bad but turned out very good.

She still has the dolphin.

The twins don’t remember much
about Julia’s illness, but their parents,
Pamela and Steve, certainly do.

Pamela recalled how quickly
things turned.

During the summer, Julia was ex-
periencing fevers, loss of appetite and
lack of sleep. They brought her to doc-
tors, but one night while the family
was staying at Steve’s parents’ house
down the shore, they took the 18-
month-old to the Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia.

“We went to CHOP one night —
and never went home for 10 days,”
Pamela said.

After X-rays, a lot of questions and
spending the night in triage, an oncol-
ogist told them the news at 3:30 a.m.

“You never see yourself in that position,” she said. “It hit fast and
heavy; you regroup because you have to.”
Julia started chemotherapy the next day and received those five
blood transfusions over the course of four days. It was an immediate,
heavy-duty medical intervention for stage three Wilms’ tumor.

The tumor essentially destroyed her right kidney. Wilms’ tumor
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