Joliet woman grew the love in her family

JOLIET – Taco Bell.

Two simple words. An everlasting memory for the Sanchez family.

On July 26, Angie Sanchez, 30, of Joliet, suddenly passed away. Her mother, Debbie Robertson, had cared for Angie since 2007 when Angie had two strokes shortly after the birth of her son, Jose, now 9.

Debbie didn’t understand the details. She only knew Angie had pregnancy complications, which produced blood clots and caused the strokes.

When Angie woke up, she looked at her younger sister, Annabel Sanchez, of Joliet, now 22, and said, “Taco Bell.” When the sisters were little girls, “Taco Bell” was Angie’s nickname for Annabel, Debbie said.

It meant Angie would live.

Debbie said she dismissed recommendations from health care providers to consider a nursing home for Angie.

The rationale, Debbie said, was that Angie “would be like a newborn all over again, in her body and in her mind.”

“I said, ‘She’s coming home with her mother,’ ” Debbie said. “I’ve been taking care of my daughter since the day she was born.”

As a baby, Angie was giggly and lovable, two traits intact even after the strokes affected Angie’s ability to think, talk and reason as she had in the past. Angie now found joy in daily life. She delighted in her favorite TV shows – cartoons, wrestling matches, the Cubs’ baseball games and the soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” Debbie said.

“She couldn’t talk, but she could point to objects in the room to tell me what she wanted,” Debbie said.

Angie loved her schnauzer, Pier – who slept on her bed – as well as playing catch with Jose using her one good hand. Debbie said Jose always kissed his mother before and after school and at bedtime.

“I always wanted her to feel her son was there for her,” Debbie said.

Angie's favorite color was blue and she nursed several celebrity crushes – Kris Bryant, Rey Mysterio and "George," who played in a Cicero-based band and brought Angie a
teddy bear with a heart on it.

Angie grew so excited when Mysterio appeared on TV, Debbie did something about it.

“I contacted the producer and told him Angie wanted to meet him,” Debbie said.

"He sent me a picture and a DVD. He sent a lot of stuff for Angie."
"I put it all in her room. He couldn't come but he answered my prayer," Debbie said.

The challenge was getting Angie out of the house. A home visiting family practice doctor came to Angie's house for her regular care. A Go Fund Me account to raise funds for a ramp didn't do well.

They're hoping to do better raising money for her tombstone at www.gofundme.com/angiedonation.

On the rare occasion Angie did leave the house, she required several people to lift and carry her down the stairs. So the family didn’t often attempt it, especially after Debbie fell down the porch steps in the effort, Debbie said.

But Angie was so happy and content at home with her family, caring for her was pure joy. Debbie said she bathed, dressed and fed her adult daughter, learned about feeding tubes and catheter lines, and disliked being away from Angie for any length of time.

“I would leave to go to the store to buy stuff, but I’d always want to get home – to feed her and to give her medicine,” Debbie said. “I was always on it.”

Harold Sanchez, Angie’s older brother, said he helped, too.

“I could pick her up and drive her to the doctor or the hospital when she had to go to the hospital,” Harold said. “I took her to Brookfield Zoo.”

It was a memorable trip Angie enjoyed as much as Jose, whom she kept comparing to a monkey.

“She would point to the monkeys and then point to her son,” Debbie said. “She liked the dolphins that jumped out of the water and hit the balloon with their noses and splashed water all over us.”

The Sanchez family gave Angie a surprise birthday party July 10, a backyard barbecue that included members of her extended family. Angie had a grand time, but the festivities exhausted her. Angie fell asleep as soon as she was in bed, Debbie said.

A couple weeks later, Angie and her exuberance for life were gone, leaving the Sanchez family to mourn the memory of a young woman who desired only to love and be loved.

That said, Debbie feels Angie left one important legacy.

“Her son,” Debbie said.

• To feature someone in “An Extraordinary Life,” contact Denise M. Baran-Unland at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.