A Murrieta family found strength and support, care and comfort at an unexpected place – a Temecula gymnastics studio – when one of them quickly succumbed to cancer.
And now one of them, Sarah Garcia, is approaching international gymnastics competitions armed with a steely determination that has been forged by adversity and recovery.
“She doesn’t talk much in the gym,” gymnastics instructor Meredith Paulicivic said of her 13-year-old student. “When she gets to a meet, she thinks ‘Who do I have to beat?’ I’ve known her since she was 7 or 8. She has a quirky sense of humor that, I think, gets her through hard times. She’s not really super emotional. She’s really tough.”
Like many young gymnasts, Sarah overcame injuries – a fractured shin and thumb – during her climb through regional, state and national competitions over the past year. But, she also suffered the loss of her mother during that period.
Rick Garcia remembers the exact minute in which Christina, his wife of 15 years, died at age 39 in the arms of her young family.
“It was at 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008,” he said.
Although, the family’s informal support network was not present at that difficult moment, it helped the Garcias get to that point and beyond.
The extended group of gymnastic parents and staff at SCEGA provided emotional and financial support during Christina’s six-month bout with a rare blood disorder.
“The parents at the gym kind of surrounded me and the coaches were all there for me,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it without the people around me.”
Gym parents would help care for Sarah and her 12-year-old sister, Rebecca, who is active in youth volleyball.
They cooked and drove for the family, provided overnight stays and gift cards and held bake sales and other fund-raising events to help offset Christina’s medical bills, which climbed in $5,000 increments with each of her chemotherapy treatments.
SCEGA and its booster club put Sarah on scholarship status while the family’s finances were raked by the disease and its aftermath.
In exchange for the tuition waivers, Rick did some electrical repair work at the gym.
Rick’s mother, who lives in Anaheim, came to stay with the family on weekdays to help care for the girls and shuttle them to their lessons, sports events and other functions.
Rick’s employer, an Orange County electrical repair company, gave him the time off he needed to care for his wife as her condition rapidly declined. The company even paid his wages on many of the days when his wife’s disease or other family obligations caused him to miss work.
It was during that period that Paulicivic and others at the gym pulled hardest for the family. They, too, felt the emotional pain as they watched the tender moments that Christina shared with Sarah at her gymnastic meets and other outings.
“I remember thinking how fast [Christina] spiraled down,” Paulicivic said. “It made me think a lot. It was really hard.”
At the same time, she and other supporters gained a deep appreciation of Rick’s low-key parenting approach.
“He’s really committed to his children,” she said. “He could’ve been out with the guys drowning his sorrows.”
In the end, gym parents and staff helped the family cushion the devastating blow of Christina’s death.
“Pretty much the whole gym was at the funeral,” she said. “It was a real hard time for the gym, especially the parents.”
That support network was out in force again when the Garcia family recently marked the one-year anniversary of Christina’s death.
Focusing on athletics has helped Sarah and Rebecca look past the pain, Rick said. For Sarah, that means focusing on her gymnastics as she gears up for international-level competitions.
Sarah has reached the 10th step of the 11 competitive levels of youth gymnastics, said Paulicivic, a former SCEGA student who snared a full athletic scholarship at the University of Utah.
From there, Paulicivic went on to become a four-time All American collegiate gymnast and a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association champion.
Sarah is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Paulicivic and about 20 other SCEGA students who have received college scholarships.
A shot at the Olympics is also a possibility, but a myriad of factors that include a gymnast’s age, injuries that may crop up and the timing of the every-four-year competition come into play. The next Olympics will occur in 2012.
“She’s definitely and up-and-comer,” Paulicivic said. “She’s powerful, but she’s a good dancer. She’s strong.”
