Part Nine: The Foundation
Six months after the hearing, the Mateo Torres Foundation processed its first grants.
The foundation’s focus was specific: families with children receiving treatment for blood disorders, in the same hospital system where Mateo had been treated. The gaps it targeted were the specific gaps I had fallen into and climbed back out of over eight months: temporary housing close to the hospital for families who had traveled from other cities, medications not covered by standard insurance, specialized food for children with compromised digestive systems from treatment, transportation stipends, and scholarships for pediatric nurses specializing in hematology.
Rodrigo Salazar had helped structure it. He had charged me for approximately a quarter of his actual hours. When I raised this, he said that some cases were different from other cases, and that this was one of them, and that we should not discuss it further.
The first renovated ward at the Children’s Hospital was opened on a Saturday morning in November. I stood in the room with the hospital director and several of the nurses who had cared for Mateo, and there was a small ceremony, and there was a plaque on the wall.
In memory of Mateo Torres. The boy who wanted to be a doctor so he could heal other children.
One of the nurses who had been on Mateo’s ward was there. She had been the one who first suggested the superhero pajamas, early in the diagnosis, when Mateo had been frightened and she had said you can wear whatever you want here. She cried when she saw the plaque. I held her hand.
