Fighter (Anthony Rizzo)

FIGHTER

Camilla

My life is like a movie. I was a happy kid with a good upbringing and family until I was given the worst news ever. I had cancer. At eleven years old that feels like the end of the world, your innocence and simplicity has to be traded for strength and complication in order to survive. Something no child should need to do, but they have to.

And as my movie plays on I go through chemo for the better parts of four years but finally win my battle. I'm a different person leaving that hospital than I was coming in. I'm happy because I know what it's like not to be able to. I'm bright because I've gone through the darkest of times. I'm smarter because I know what it's like to be so uncertain. Cancer is a terrible thing, but during the time most kids would be finding out who they are and who they want to be, I was just hoping to see the next day. That's no way for a child to grow up but it's the only way I was allowed to.

Come time for college I was doing fine and make it through with no problems. I graduate top of my class and fall in love all in the matter of months. Meeting Anthony and getting to know him will always be one of the defining moments in my life. He was sent to me and did a great job of helping me live to my full potential. For the first time fear wasn't my number one emotion, it was love. He understood me and who I wanted to be, in a sense I was beyond lucky to have him. He always says I changed him but I know that I need him just as much, maybe a little bit more. The movie seemed to be looking good once again, but through all the stress and strong feelings I ignore the headaches and dizziness and ultimately all the signs that my cancer returned.

But I refused to let that be my defining moment. There's nothing I personally could do to cure myself, but I had a good team of doctors and Anthony to help me beat cancer for a second time. I was older this time around, wiser. It was still hard but it we did it. After fighting my battle I became a part of a bigger one. Something that's bigger than me, 108 years with of suffering as opposed to 15 years of mine.

I watched history unfold with my own eyes and even got to be a part of it. My movie got a bit brighter and maybe all that bad stuff wasn't that bad after all. It's the bad times that help you appreciate the good ones.

I've been able to be a part of the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation as a part of the family. As Camilla Rizzo I fight alongside Anthony in finding a cure for pediatric cancer. Sure, my movie might have a happily ever after, but only because I have people like Anthony in my life. The kind of guy that could be the difference between life and death. That organization raises so much money and awareness, being in it makes me feel like we can defeat this killer, maybe not any day soon, but someday.

After we got married we worked hard on charity work for the foundation along with other charities in the Cubs organization. With all the money going to cancer research we're hoping for a breakthrough soon. Until then we regularly visit kids and try to make their movies be a little less painful.

In August of 2018 we welcomed little McKenzie Taylor Rizzo into the world. She had a full head of dark brown hair and brown eyes just like her dad. Anthony was nervous at first but he quickly became a great father. He didn't mind taking the night shift even with a game the next day. He loves Kenzie more than anything in the world and it's beautiful to see her grow up to be such a daddies girl. She's a difference maker and I know she's made a difference in my life, I couldn't ask for a better first child. A year and a half later Cameron Jacob Rizzo was born, named after the one and only Cameron Maxwell. He also seemed to inherit his love for baseball, or maybe he gets it from his dad. Regardless of the origin the little guy is headed for great things in the sport. And if that doesn't work out he is a great cuddler. Last but certainly not least is Annie Kendra Rizzo, a sassy, intelligent, and powerful young lady who is head strong and kind as ever. She's insistent she will be the president one day and I don't doubt it. She's something special.

Our family along with Cubbie and Addison live out by Wrigley field. Anthony and I still confess our love for each other at least three times a day, four times if we're really feeling it. Life isn't easy, but it's worth it when I'm woken up with three kids jumping on the bed excited to put another day in the books. Our kids understand that it's not going to be all good all the time. But life is only bad if you let it be. None of our kids have signs of being unhealthy. We check up on them regularly to make sure they don't go through what we did. It's hard to tell them there's always a chance for Anthony or I or one of them to have to deal with something so far out of our control. But they have the right to know that there is bad in this world, even if it doesn't affect them immediately. I think they understand but there's no way of knowing for sure.

When I was a kid I was called fighter but I wasn't sure what I was fighting for. Now that I have someone that I can put my everything into such as my amazing kids and amazing husband, I understand what I was fighting for. I was fighting for the little moments when one of the kids has show and tell and they ask to see one of my wigs or one of Anthony's balls he's slipped into his back pocket over the years. The moments when Anthony and I can sit on the porch and watch the kids play together in the backyard. The moments I look at Anthony and thank god that he found his way to me and still looks back at me with so much love like the first year we met. The moments when I'm laying in his arms and I can't think of a single detail of my life I'm willing to change.

I went through a lot of shit to get to this point of my life, but I would go through it all again to get back to this moment in my life. It's all worth it to watch my baby girl come home with nothing but A's on her report card or my little boy pass home plate with that smile on his face just waving frantically to Anthony and I and his sisters in the stands. It's all worth it and that's all I wanted from this movie called life.