A father, mother and daughter were each diagnosed with cancer. On Friday, Blanca Rodriguez and her husband Juan will get to see their daughter, Margarita, graduate from UC Irvine.
The first setback in the Rodriguez family came when they learned 51-year-old Juan had carcinoma. A decade later, his wife Blanca was diagnosed with lymphoma.
Margarita Rodriguez's first quarter at UC Irvine was filled with trips home to care for a mother in chemotherapy.
Then lightning struck a third time. At the age of 19, she learned through a DNA test she had a 90 percent chance of developing breast cancer before she turned 30.
"I had to make the decision right for me, regardless of how difficult it would be to leave UCI for a time," Rodriguez said.
After talking to counselors, the freshman made a difficult choice to withdraw from college and have a double mastectomy.
"If I have this mutation, I'm going to have it now. I'm going to have it in five years, I would rather know now. I would rather be able to do something about it now," she said.
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Six months later she was back, pursuing a double major in psychology and education.
"She was excellent at the time and did even better when she came back. She wanted to take the minimum off. I was worried about that, but she wasn't," academic counselor Kurt Hessinger said.
Her mother is in remission. Her father's cancer was removed with surgery. Younger brother David also took the DNA test. His results were negative.
"My health issues in the past brought us closer in a way that few things can," she said.
Rodriguez calls her college experience bittersweet. There were sacrifices and choices few her age go through.
In Spanish, she wrote on her graduation cap "thus far the lord has helped me." Soon she'll be back at UC Irvine to get a master's in education.
