HOUSTON – They say that music can touch your soul and heal your wounds. If that’s true, then the Hill family of Houston, with eight children, has needed music in the worst way just to heal.
You see for three brutal years, the family sacrificed and struggled to help little Juliet fight a life-and-death battle against acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The disease attacked her when she was just 2 years old.
“Oh man, Juliet Hill is a firecracker. She missed out on a large portion of her childhood having to be in the hospital,” mom Kelly Hill tells us.
Ask any family that’s battled cancer and they’ll tell you, everyone is affected.
In this case, that means, 10-year-old Sophia, 9-year-old Kensleigh, 7-year-old Lillah, 6-year-old Charlie, 5-year-old Juliette of course, 3-year-old June, 4-year-old Owen, and 2-year-old Evelyn all fought the battle to keep Juliet alive with their parents.
“You know as a parent, you would give anything. I’ll take the cancer,” said Hill while holding back emotions.
The good news is this past September, little Juliet was pronounced cancer-free.
The bad news-- the struggle of Kelly not being able to work and all the expenses have left the Hills scrambling to pay their bills.
“Tight is quite an understatement. With a family our size, just day to day, month to month is difficult,” she adds.
If all that wasn’t enough, just last month, the family’s 10-passenger van suddenly burst into flames.
Luckily everyone got out but the vehicle was destroyed.
All of which means this Christmas, the Hills weren’t going to be having a Christmas until they wrote to KPRC 2′s Bill Spencer.
Working with our partners at Academy Sports and Outdoors and with Laura Alexis of Innovative Lasers of Houston, the family is getting a deserving Christmas.
We’re about to give the Hills a holiday they’ll never forget.
“On behalf of myself and the entire staff at Innovative Lasers of Houston, I would like to present a present for you, a check for $1,500 so you can purchase a Christmas tree and presents and gifts,”
“This was the miracle our family needed this year,” said Dad.
That was just the beginning, the children each got a new bicycle.
“This is really cool,” said one of the girls. “I’m going to ride it every day.”
And there was one last gift for the family, a $1,000 gift card to spend at Academy Sports and Outdoors.
The Hills told Bill, “Thank you, I’m not used to getting very much help or seeing anyone care that much, and so ah, so I really, appreciate it, thank you so much.”
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Do you need help paying bills this holiday season?
For our “Christmas Miracles” series, the ‘Spencer Solves It’ team is working to help several families this holiday season. We’ve already chosen the families from the hundreds of emails we received. If you need help paying utility bills, there are several organizations that can help. Scroll down on this “Ask Amy” article for a list of places to call.