NBC4’s Lolita Lopez shares what made her choose to tell her 9-year-old daughter about her stage two A invasive breast cancer, and how her family is fighting the battle together. Lolita Lopez reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on July 25, 2013.
When NBC4 reporter and mother Lolita Lopez was diagnosed with stage two A invasive breast cancer, many mothers around her couldn’t believe she told her 9-year-old daughter, Lulu.
“She lives in my house. She is going to see me do this,” Lopez explained.
Other mothers thought Lulu might have been nervous or worried about her mother’s cancer. But for Lulu, the story was quite the opposite.
“She has been so much more in control of the situation. And so much more appreciative…because she knows we are handling it together,” Lopez proudly stated.
By knowing what her mom was going through, Lulu was able to be a team player in their family.
“She will make me lunch sometimes, or she will make her bed in the morning every day, or make her breakfast because she knows it helps Mommy,” Lopez said.
Even so, Lopez still worried about her daughter and her young nieces.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
“My biggest fear is that something will happen to her because I got this. If I am the one who is supposed to get it in my family, so they don’t, then so be it. And thank goodness if that is the case,” Lopez said.
But Lopez was also realistic and admitted that may not be the situation.
“When and if it happens to anyone I know including my own daughter, hopefully not ever, I will be prepared. And she will be prepared,” Lopez added.
While Lopez knew cancer would be a challenging time for her family, she was determined that somehow her daughter would be better because of it.
“I hope that it makes her braver because she will see me go through this and she will be like ‘my mom beat cancer’,” Lopez said.
