Series offers therapy for father, daughter

PORTLAND, Ore. - She lost her voice not in the mouth of the sky-reaching mountains that surround Alpenrose Field, but almost 2,000 miles away, at home in Sterling. She would have lost it here anyway, though. What with Sterling playing on ESPN2 Tuesday night for the chance to go to the Little League Softball World Series championship game. That dream came up short after a 1-0, heartbreaking loss to the East Regional champs from Robbinsville, N.J. But the trip still was more than worth it. The raspy whisper that frames Christine Rico's words are the result of illness. Rico, grandmother of Sterling All-Star Tessa Trujillo, had to quit her job at an ophthalmologist's office back in April, after she endured three surgeries. She had thyroid cancer, her vocal chords are damaged and she has an autoimmune disease that, at times, makes her really weak. Still, when Rico called her 85-year-old father, Gonzalo Mena, and asked him to drive her to Oregon, he was quick to oblige. Thing is, he doesn't hear so well. "He said, 'Sure, I'd love to see the Blackhawk Indian," Rico said with a quiet roar. "He thought I meant Oregon, Ill." As he wrestled Rico's 25-pound suitcase into the trunk of his white, four-door 2002 Buick Regal, Mena still wasn't fully aware of the long road ahead. Heck, he didn't even pack a bag. Luckily, Mena, a tennis instructor at Kilgour Park, had a bag in his trunk that he brings with him to the Y. One thing the two forgot, though, was to bring enough medicine for Mena. That problem was solved with a phone call to Walgreens. "He said, 'Why are you bringing so many clothes?" Rico said. Because she can hardly talk and he can hardly hear, Rico used sign language to communicate with her father. She just told him to get on Interstate 80 and head west, toward Des Moines, Iowa. "He goes, 'That's not the way to Oregon,' " Rico said. "I think he thought I was kidding." "I don't know how they made it here," Rico's daughter and Tessa's mother, Rosalie Trujillo said. "She totally surprised me in Joplin [at the Central Regional]. I turned around and said, 'Oh my God, there's my mom.' " Rico's husband, Joe, made the trip to Missouri, but couldn't take off work to come to Portland. So dad was the man. During 30-hours over 2 days on the road, father and daughter reminisced of family vacations past. When they passed Yellowstone National Park on their way to Portland, Rico was brought back to the time when her father had to rent a helicopter to rescue two of her brothers, who got lost in the Grand Canyon during a family vacation. "He's 85, so he doesn't want to get a ticket and lose his license," Rico said. "So we're doing like 56 mph on an 80 mph highway. I felt like we were walking like a turtle." Mena sat stone silent, eyes, hidden behind big brown sunglasses, watching the empty field in front of him as his daughter pushed the experience from her lips and granddaughter listened. "I think he's still in shock," Rico said. Mena, though, was trying to listen. Taking in his daughter's words. Dressed in the customary dark green Central T-shirt and a pair of slacks, Mena, who was born in Mexico City in 1923, moved to the U.S. in 1949 and became a citizen 25 years ago, turned toward his daughter and let go of a grin. "This makes her feel happy and forget about her sickness," he said, his Mexican accent booming. "You can take all the medicines you want, but what she doesn't realize is everything around here is new for us. This is like therapy for her." He then turned his attention back to the field for a brief moment as Rico whispers a question in his ear. She's asking if he's ever been to China. "Hell no, I haven't been to jail," he shot back. Rico and Rosalie could only laugh. "Me and my sisters are pretty worried about them driving back," Rosalie said of herself and siblings Connie, Annette, Michele and Rachael. For now, though, the four generations of family will take in all the excitement at Alpenrose Field. The Blackhawk Indian in the other Oregon will be waiting for them when they return home. "I'm happy they did come," Tessa Trujillo said. "Great-grandpa didn't know, at first, where he was going, but grandma told him."