Tatum's journey

For most of us, July 25, 2019, was just another summer day in Northeast Iowa.
The sun shone brightly on a day when the temperatures were comfortably in the upper 70s. Kids rode their bikes, swam at the pool and hung out with their friends. Or at least most of them.
At MercyOne New Hampton Family Clinic, little Tatum Lechtenberg sat with her mother and her little sister, waiting to hear back from Dr. Jack Kline about the tests the 6-year-old Tatum had undergone earlier in the day.
“It seemed like it was taking forever,” said the mom, Michelle, “and honestly, I was getting really impatient. I went out in the hallway to find out what was taking so long …”
For a moment, Michelle Lechtenberg was transported back to that day. She paused, cleared her throat and quietly shared the rest of the story.
“As soon as I saw Jack’s face,” she said, “I knew something was wrong — really, really wrong.”
It was.
Kline had asked the lab to rerun the test. Twice. And the results were the same.
Six-year-old Tatum had Acute B Cell Lymphoblastic Leukeimia, or as they call it, ALL.
And just like that, life dramatically changed for Tatum, her parents and her younger sister.
— For more on this story, see the July 7 Tribune