Published: Sunday, January 3, 2010
Student keeps vow to return to college
Sacia Flowers, who was profiled in The Herald in 2009, will resume college after a delay to care for her grandmother.
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald
Sacia Flowers, 19, smiles at her grandmother, Sharon Chism, in their Marysville home on Dec. 9.
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald
Sacia Flowers, 19, smiles at her grandmother, Sharon Chism, in their Marysville home on Dec. 9. Sacia, a Western Washington University student, took the fall quarter off to care for her grandmother, who needed surgery.
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald Sacia Flowers, 19, plays with her dog, Peanut, while her grandmother, Sharon Chism, watches in their Marysville home Dec. 9.
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald Sacia Flowers, 19, and her grandmother, Sharon Chism, in their Marysville home on Dec. 9.
MARYSVILLE — Sacia Flowers stirs cinnamon into a mug of coffee, hoping the spice will warm her.
In baby pink slippers, she plods over to the couch where her grandma rests. Sacia sits on the floor beside a space heater. She studies her grandma, watching her talk, the way her gaunt fingers curl around her glasses, the raspy sureness of her voice.
It is Wednesday, Dec. 9 — exactly six years since the murder of Sacia's mother, Sharon Chism's daughter. For a few years they marked the occasion with a family visit to Kayak Point Park, remembering the ashes spilled in Port Susan and the woman who abandoned them for drugs long before her murder.
The emptiness was too complete, especially for Sacia, her older sister and younger twin brother and sister. Now they pass the day quietly, remembering but trying not to relive the agony.
In the years since the murder, Sacia — more than anyone in her family — has tried to rise above the past and make a new future. While helping her grandma raise the twins and assuming many household responsibilities, she earned A's and applied for college scholarships. She graduated from Marysville Arts and Technology High School in 2008 as salutatorian — second in a class of 67.
The following September, she started class at Western Washington University, the first in her family to make it to college. The stress of being in a new place, an hour away from her grandma and the twins, ate at Sacia. She earned A's and B's in class, but cried daily and spent every weekend at Chism's Marysville home.
She flirted with the idea of quitting, but by the end of her freshman year had resolved to push through the pain and continue at Western.
Then in September 2009, a week before Sacia was scheduled to return to campus for her second year, she changed her mind. A few days earlier, Sacia had learned that her grandmother needed surgery to prevent an aneurysm from bleeding into her brain. Sacia shelved her college dreams to care for her grandmother. She vowed she'd return for winter quarter.
In October, Sacia spent a week at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle hovering over her grandma. She slept in recliners by Chism's bed and, on the day after the surgery, was the first to recognize lethargy and swelling in Chism, signs doctors diagnosed as a stroke. She watched doctors press on her grandma's swollen face and ask simple questions Chism couldn't remember how to answer.
“It was like someone had upended my stomach with something blunt,” Sacia said. “It was hard to watch.”
Chism, 61, recovered her memory quickly and shed most outward signs of her stroke. During the months she spent recovering at home, the Snohomish County truck driver slept a dozen hours a day and relied on Sacia to pay bills, call insurance companies, feed the twins and clean the house.
“This experience in and of itself made me think about some things I never thought about before, like my education is important to me, but my family is more important,” Sacia, 19, said. “So no matter what, if anything would happen to one of my family members and they needed me, I'd put school on hold — no matter what.”
Still, Sacia wanted to finish college. She wanted a white-collar job, maybe in science, a reliable income and intellectual stimulation. She wanted to set a good example for her younger siblings.
Scores of people were pushing for her to succeed. After a feature about Sacia ran in The Herald in September, dozens of readers wrote to encourage her to continue with college. Many were inspired by her story and offered donations, but Sacia turned them down, asking them to donate to charity instead.
A film crew from the Orphan Society of America spent some time with her for a documentary on orphans, which is in production now.
“Sacia is an incredible, inspiring, strong individual,” said Tarah Epstein Baiman, founder of the Orphan Society of America, of Berwyn, Penn. “We thought her story would reach a lot of people. There's nobody who has read about her or heard about her that hasn't said, ‘What an amazing, amazing young woman.' ”
Even Chism, still facing months of recovery, said she wants Sacia to return to college.
“I'm anxious for her to get back to school,” she said. “It put her behind and now she has a lot of catching up to do, but she'll do it. She'll get caught up and wind up ahead.”
In December, Sacia called Western and registered for classes. She contacted the various organizations that had given her scholarships and arranged to resume receiving money. She devised a plan to live at home and spend time on campus after class to finish most of her homework before returning to Marysville. She'll read on the bus and hopefully be able to devote herself to family in the evenings.
On Tuesday, Sacia returns to Western for her sophomore year.
Her struggle is far from over, but, for now, Sacia is back at school.
In baby pink slippers, she plods over to the couch where her grandma rests. Sacia sits on the floor beside a space heater. She studies her grandma, watching her talk, the way her gaunt fingers curl around her glasses, the raspy sureness of her voice.
It is Wednesday, Dec. 9 — exactly six years since the murder of Sacia's mother, Sharon Chism's daughter. For a few years they marked the occasion with a family visit to Kayak Point Park, remembering the ashes spilled in Port Susan and the woman who abandoned them for drugs long before her murder.
The emptiness was too complete, especially for Sacia, her older sister and younger twin brother and sister. Now they pass the day quietly, remembering but trying not to relive the agony.
In the years since the murder, Sacia — more than anyone in her family — has tried to rise above the past and make a new future. While helping her grandma raise the twins and assuming many household responsibilities, she earned A's and applied for college scholarships. She graduated from Marysville Arts and Technology High School in 2008 as salutatorian — second in a class of 67.
The following September, she started class at Western Washington University, the first in her family to make it to college. The stress of being in a new place, an hour away from her grandma and the twins, ate at Sacia. She earned A's and B's in class, but cried daily and spent every weekend at Chism's Marysville home.
She flirted with the idea of quitting, but by the end of her freshman year had resolved to push through the pain and continue at Western.
Then in September 2009, a week before Sacia was scheduled to return to campus for her second year, she changed her mind. A few days earlier, Sacia had learned that her grandmother needed surgery to prevent an aneurysm from bleeding into her brain. Sacia shelved her college dreams to care for her grandmother. She vowed she'd return for winter quarter.
In October, Sacia spent a week at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle hovering over her grandma. She slept in recliners by Chism's bed and, on the day after the surgery, was the first to recognize lethargy and swelling in Chism, signs doctors diagnosed as a stroke. She watched doctors press on her grandma's swollen face and ask simple questions Chism couldn't remember how to answer.
“It was like someone had upended my stomach with something blunt,” Sacia said. “It was hard to watch.”
Chism, 61, recovered her memory quickly and shed most outward signs of her stroke. During the months she spent recovering at home, the Snohomish County truck driver slept a dozen hours a day and relied on Sacia to pay bills, call insurance companies, feed the twins and clean the house.
“This experience in and of itself made me think about some things I never thought about before, like my education is important to me, but my family is more important,” Sacia, 19, said. “So no matter what, if anything would happen to one of my family members and they needed me, I'd put school on hold — no matter what.”
Still, Sacia wanted to finish college. She wanted a white-collar job, maybe in science, a reliable income and intellectual stimulation. She wanted to set a good example for her younger siblings.
Scores of people were pushing for her to succeed. After a feature about Sacia ran in The Herald in September, dozens of readers wrote to encourage her to continue with college. Many were inspired by her story and offered donations, but Sacia turned them down, asking them to donate to charity instead.
A film crew from the Orphan Society of America spent some time with her for a documentary on orphans, which is in production now.
“Sacia is an incredible, inspiring, strong individual,” said Tarah Epstein Baiman, founder of the Orphan Society of America, of Berwyn, Penn. “We thought her story would reach a lot of people. There's nobody who has read about her or heard about her that hasn't said, ‘What an amazing, amazing young woman.' ”
Even Chism, still facing months of recovery, said she wants Sacia to return to college.
“I'm anxious for her to get back to school,” she said. “It put her behind and now she has a lot of catching up to do, but she'll do it. She'll get caught up and wind up ahead.”
In December, Sacia called Western and registered for classes. She contacted the various organizations that had given her scholarships and arranged to resume receiving money. She devised a plan to live at home and spend time on campus after class to finish most of her homework before returning to Marysville. She'll read on the bus and hopefully be able to devote herself to family in the evenings.
On Tuesday, Sacia returns to Western for her sophomore year.
Her struggle is far from over, but, for now, Sacia is back at school.
Story tags »
• Marysville • Colleges • Western Washington University • People"Sacia's Promise"
To read “Sacia's Promise,” a story about Sacia Flowers that appeared in The Herald on Sept. 20, go to www.heraldnet.com/sacia.
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