Faith, prayer help keep LeBeaus on right path
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BY KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star
PORCUPINE, S.D. — The doctor told her family she'd be gone in 30 minutes.
As Theresa LeBeau lay motionless in a coma, her son did the only thing he could: He asked the nearly 100 people gathered there to pray.
But first, Jerome LeBeau asked her a question: Mom, are you ready to fight this one more time?
In fact, her body was already fighting the cancer, her 108-degree fever a testament to its struggle.
Later, Theresa would describe this as the turning point, when life began to creep back into her bones.
She didn't die that day in the Rapid City, S.D., hospital where she was being treated for breast cancer.
She needed to pull her family back together, fight for them one more time, she says.
"I'm still here because I'm not done doing that yet."
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This is a story of hope. For a people. For a continuation of a culture. And for one family.
It is the story of a Lakota family living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, struggling to stay together and stay strong in the face of forces that might tear any other family apart.
But the LeBeaus aren't any family.
v v v
The boy wanted to believe his mom would be OK, but he couldn't help but wonder.
Devon LeBeau leaned against the wall outside the Pine Ridge High School gym as his sister, Layne, went through graduation ceremonies inside.
It was early June, only days after his mother's ordeal. Although out of immediate danger, she was still fighting for her life two hours away.
The 15-year-old stood nearly speechless, waiting for the ceremony inside to end.
"My mom's real sick right now," he said.
Later, his family — cousins, aunts, uncles, fathers and mothers — stood in a circle outside Jerome's trailer home north of Porcupine.
They hung their heads, their hands folded before them.
Jerome prayed again.
This time, he prayed for the children, for those who graduated on this warm summer day and for those not lucky enough to have family gathered around them.
He prayed for his mother.
The wind carried the smell of steak and chicken cooking on a grill, the sound of children racing each other as the family celebrated Layne's graduation.
Growing up, Layne knew she was lucky.
When her friends went hungry, her family had food.
When they had no place to live, she had her own room and parents who loved her.
Her father was coach of the boys and girls high school basketball teams in Pine Ridge. He was also her mentor. When she wanted to quit, he was always there, on the court or at home.
She credits her parents with helping her stay focused and sober, a leader for her teammates and classmates.
"That's how I got to graduate this year," she said, "because they told me I could."
Sitting nearby, Dusty LeBeau tried not to think about his wife in a Rapid City hospital bed.
"I gotta be strong," he said. "If I weaken, they all will."
Devon was beginning to stray and struggling with his schoolwork, he said.
He worried about his daughter, too. Layne cried when she learned her mother wouldn't watch her graduate.
But he had faith. Something would happen to change his family's fortunes.
"We still believe that God will work His miracle," he said.
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Theresa is home now.
Nearly a year later, she's still fighting cancer, but plans to be around for quite some time.
The chemotherapy has cleared most of her cancer, but doctors are worried about spots they found recently on her bones.
So the treatments continue.
Dusty quit his coaching job for a year to be with her.
She still laments missing Layne's graduation.
"When I was sick I didn't get to do anything for her," she says.
Layne stayed on the reservation and began taking college classes in Kyle. She is studying nursing and wants to be a midwife.
Devon struggled with his mother's illness at first. He drank. He was failing in school, Theresa says. She and Dusty transferred him to Little Wound High School in Kyle, where he has done better this year.
Even though most of her children have experimented with drugs and alcohol, Theresa and her husband have been able to get them back on the right path, she says.
When she got out of the hospital, Theresa went to a Sun Dance hosted by Jerome. From a wheelchair, she watched her relatives dance and pray.
Her family is strong again today, she says, because of prayer.
"We're just trying to do the best we all can to be there for each other."
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