Rite of Passage 2016: Learning from Adversity
For Abbey Janeira (CAS’20), a medical condition, family life, has shaped her destiny
Abbey Janeira (CAS’20) with her service dog Eevee, at home in Cary, N.C. Hospitalizations often forced her to miss class in high school, and classmates frequently treated her differently. “People get scared I’m going to get sick. They think I’m fragile,” she says. “I don’t want to be that anymore. I don’t want to be known in Boston as the fragile girl with the service dog.”
BU recently welcomed the 3,591 freshmen of the Class of 2020, each with a unique journey. Photojournalist Jackie Ricciardi wanted to capture some of their stories. So over the summer, she caught a couple in Boston and traveled to Connecticut and North Carolina to photograph another two as they prepared to leave home for their life’s next chapter. She listened to them and their families as they talked about their dreams and fears and the events that have shaped their lives. BU Today continues last year’s “Rite of Passage” series with the stories of four of the newest Terriers. We kick off with Abbey Janeira (CAS’20), and will bring you the other three photo essays over the coming weeks.
Abbey Janeira (CAS’20) is used to facing challenges. As an eighth grader, she was diagnosed with a chronic, often debilitating medical condition that led to frequent hospitalizations throughout high school and often left her feeling alone. Despite that, she says, she was able to maintain a 4.0 grade point average.
A year and a half ago, Janeira’s family life changed dramatically when her mother decided to adopt five children from Bulgaria, all with special needs or critical medical issues. (She also has an older sister.) Where many would be daunted by the challenge of helping to care for so many siblings with pressing health care concerns, Janeira embraced it.
“When you’re having a bad day and you’re sitting there and feeling upset,” she says, “they can tell and they just come up to you and give you a hug. It’s not something you can replicate with anyone else.”
Janeira says she’s wanted to be a doctor her whole life, but that dealing with her own illness and that of her brothers and sisters has made her determined to become a pediatric surgeon and researcher. Her goal is to find a cure for spina bifida, a condition that has left her four-year-old sister, Addison, in a wheelchair. “It’s made me more understanding of other people’s situations as well as my own,” she says.
When it came time in late August to leave her home in Cary, N.C., for Boston, Janeira was accompanied by four of her younger siblings, her mother, Noreen, and her service dog, Eevee, who entered her life eight months ago. Eevee—part Chinese sharpei, part golden retriever, and part whippet, can sense when Janeira’s illness is about to flare up.
A biology major on a premed track, Janeira knows that more challenges lie ahead. She has already had to be hospitalized once since arriving at BU, but says that despite the difficulty of managing her own care and taking care of a growing dog, she’s looking forward to putting down roots and forging close friendships.
“I know she’s ready,” says her mom. “She’s so capable that she doesn’t know how capable she is.”
For the past 18 months, Abbey has been helping her mother, Noreen, care for five younger siblings with special needs, adopted from Bulgaria.
Abbey and her four-year-old sister Addison at Addison’s day care. “My goal in life is to find a cure for spina bifida so she can walk,” says Abbey, who plans to be a pediatric surgeon and hopes to help children with serious medical conditions in third world countries have a better chance of being adopted.
Abbey and her five-year-old brother, Pierce Vaughn, who has cystic fibrosis. “I’ve always wanted to be a doctor,” says the biology major.
On her Siblings
“ I love taking care of them…It gives you a purpose other than being a teenager.”
Abbey Janeira
Audio — 27 Seconds
Abbey with her family during Move-In at Warren Towers.
Abbey saying good-bye to her six-year-old brother, Matthew, before her family returns home to North Carolina. “These are children who never had a family,” Noreen says. “Now they have their Mommy and they have their Abbey. The impact of her leaving is huge.”
On Watching Abbey Grow
“ Watching her unfold is going to be awesome.”
Noreen Mulcahey(Abbey’s Mother)
Audio — 24 Seconds
“You got this. I am proud of you,” Noreen tells Abbey as she prepares to leave.
Noreen signs “I love you” to Abbey as she pulls away. “Watching her unfold is going to be awesome” she says. “I am super-proud.”
Abbey with Eevee as her family departs. Abbey went to five high schools in four years and frequently felt lost in the shuffle. “At the end of the day, I was always able to come home,” she says. “In Boston, it’s just gonna be me. Alone. With my puppy.” But she’s excited for what lies ahead: “I’m looking forward to starting over.”
This Series
Also in
Rite of Passage
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November 17, 2016
Rite of Passage 2016: Accepting Limitations
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November 11, 2016
Rite of Passage 2016: A Desire to Help Others
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October 31, 2016
Rite of Passage 2016: Transforming Loss into Passion
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