From scary tale to fairy tale
Jacqueline Gordon Povich, an alumna of Canon-McMillan High School, just celebrated four years of being free from cancer. She was wed to Jordan Povich in Cape May, N.J., over the summer.
Jacqueline Gordon sits with her dog, Cubby, in her Canonsburg home before leaving for chemotherapy treatment at Children's Hospital in this 2008 photo.
Jacqueline Gordon Povich had a fairy-tale wedding. She rode in a carriage along the boardwalk, then walked barefoot onto the beach at Cape May, N.J., where she wed her former middle school crush.
And the fact that she had been cancer-free for more than three years was the icing on the cake.
“I really honestly never dreamed that I’d ever be in that carriage going down to my future,” said Povich, daughter of Carol and Tom Gordon.
Povich, now 22, overcame cancer twice and said she feels better than ever. She celebrated her marriage last summer to Jordan Povich, 22, and looks forward to their belated honeymoon in Aruba in the spring. They met in sixth grade and graduated from Canon-McMillan High School.
But her future didn’t always seem so certain.
At the age of 8, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a fast-growing cancer of the white blood cells. She completed 27 months of chemotherapy treatment, and doctors at Children’s Hospital said the chance for recurrence was 0.1 percent.
But during her sophomore year of high school, she received the bad news that she relapsed and needed to undergo another 27 brutal months of chemotherapy.
“I even remember the day I relapsed, I couldn’t believe it. It took a lot to soak it in,” she said.
She nearly died twice during her treatment after she developed sepsis, a serious blood infection, and then battled shingles, high fevers and infections. She also had several blood transfusions.
But she made it through and was still able to attend her senior prom. She teases her husband because she later found out he planned to ask her to the dance, but chickened out. Nonetheless, the delayed timing worked in their favor. They later reconnected and started dating after graduation.
Carol Gordon said Jordan is the best thing that has happened to her daughter.
“Watching her get married, I had some tears, but I didn’t really cry because I was so thankful to see this monumental moment in her life that I could have never seen,” she said.
The newlyweds share a place in Canonsburg with their dog, a 3-year-old bloodhound named Dixie. Aside from chronic knee pain caused by avascular necrosis, a long-term side effect of the chemotherapy treatment, Povich said she feels “good and lively.”
She loves going to the gym with her husband and has gotten stronger through weight training. They like spending time in the country and going camping in Tionesta.
Povich said it is “very unlikely” that she will relapse a third time, but it’s always a nagging thought in the back of her mind. Yet, she plans to take life one day at a time.
“I really just want to continue on like a normal person. I am a normal person. It’s just that I had those few bumps in the road that obviously I cannot forget about,” she said, but added, “I’m really enjoying life right now. Life’s good.”