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18
January – March 2014
www.deltalivingmagazine.com
By Charleen Earley
charleenbearley@gmail.com
Photos courtesy of Gorilla Rilla
E
ach year, the Black Bear
Diner franchise dedicates
December toMake-A-Wish Foun-
dation. On Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013
at 4 p.m., Black Bear Diner own-
ers Jimmy and Brenda D’Amico of
Oakley honored Jessyca Abuan of
Brentwood and her family of 10
guests with a special dinner. Oak-
land Raider’s Gorilla Rilla, Mark
Acasio, visited as well.
Diagnosed with acute lym-
phocytic leukemia (also known as
ALL) on Nov. 20, 2011, Jessyca is
now 17-years-old. She’s a senior at
Independence High School, and
was shocked to walk into Black
Bear Diner with a familiar gorilla
inside.
“It was a surprise. I thought
it was Gorilla Rilla, but then
thought maybe it was someone
else,” said Jessyca. “I was in shock
the entire night, and when I got
home, I still felt like it never really
happened.”
Jessyca had her wish come
true last October through Make-
A-Wish when she and her fam-
ily went to Florida’s Disneyworld.
In remission now, after undergo-
ing chemo and radiation treat-
ments, Jessyca is looking forward
to spring.
“I will be done with all my
chemo on March 26. From there
I will only do checkups,” said
Jessyca, who said sadly, she lost
most of her friends during the last
two years. “I’ve made new friends
though; especially at a camp I went
to near Chico for cancer patients.”
Her mother Clara Abuan, who
has two older sons, Johnny, 27 and
Raymond, 28, a Down syndrome
child, felt somewhat ‘ready’ when
news of Jessyca’s diagnosis hit.
“It turned our lives up-side-
down, that’s for sure, however I
went through the biggest shock
of my life when our son was di-
agnosed with Down syndrome. I
feel that’s why this was easier for
me to accept, but her dad took the
news much worse than I did. He
feels helpless, because he can’t fix
it,” said Clara. “We are in a good
place right now, but there are still
day-to-day issues.”
With the support of family
and faith in God, Clara wanted
to mention Jessyca’s ‘surrogate’
A gorilla-of-a-time for cancer
patient Jessyca Abuan in Oakley
Photo by Mike Burkholder
Black Bear Diner owners Jimmy and Brenda D'Amico with cancer-survivor Jessyca Abuan of Brentwood. Knowing Jessyca is an Oakland Raider's fan, he gave
her his Raider's leather jacket.
Raider’s Gorilla Rilla (Mark Acasio) - middle - gave Jessyca Abuan an auto-
graphed Raider’s football, signed by players Darren McFadden and Marcel Reece.