Cancer Claims ‘Gentle, Caring Girl’
Three and a half weeks ago, 14-year-old Renee Bauer was babysitting her neighbor’s children and looking forward to the Willie Nelson concert Aug. 30 at Playfair.
She was mildly concerned about having lost 30 pounds over two months and about pains in her stomach. But Bauer was just as nervous about starting her freshman year at Shadle Park High School and trying out for the volleyball team.
Those stomach pains turned out to be a 45-pound tumor. After a shockingly brief battle with cancer, Renee died at Deaconess Medical Center last Friday. She will be buried today in her Willie Nelson T-shirt with her concert ticket in her hand.
The suddenness of Renee’s death has left friends, teachers and the parents of the child shaken.
“You kind of muddle through it. The shock is not over yet,” said Buddy Bauer, her father.
In interviews, Renee was described as a gentle, caring girl with a sharp mind and keen interest in cats and stock car racing.
She was the babysitter for her neighborhood near Audubon Park, playing hopscotch and practicing cartwheels with the children.
Renee had saved about $100 and planned to spend it on plaques of Bobby Allison, Dale Ernhardt and Joe Montana, her three sports heros.
“You want all 25 kids (in a classroom) to be like her,” said Betty Dumas, Renee’s third-grade teacher at Finch Elementary School. Renee was an honor roll student at Glover Middle School. She was determined to get good grades so she could go to college, said Diane Alfano, a math teacher at Glover.
Bauer hoped to become a veterinarian because she loved cats, said her mother, Linny Noland.
“It’s really a waste … to lose such potential, for her to die so early, and not accomplish those things she wanted to do,” said Alfano.
Renee had complained of stomach pains for months, her parents said. A doctor diagnosed the problem three months ago as gas. The family was waiting to get Bauer medical insurance before getting a second opinion. She went for that opinion Aug. 28, two days after getting coverage under the state’s basic health plan. The next day, she was on the operating table getting a fluid-causing tumor removed.
“It was just so fast,” said Noland. Doctors initially gave the family a cautiously optimistic prognosis. The cancer, ovarian sarcoma, was aggressive but treatable.
She underwent an initial round of chemotherapy, which proved mildly successful. But on Sept. 10, just after starting a second round, she slipped into a comatose state. She quickly deteriorated and died in her sleep last Friday.
Renee’s parents said they don’t want to deal with anything other than the grief of losing their only child.
But insurance did not cover all of the medical bills. They do not know what their share will be, but know that it will be “too much” for the working-class couple to pay.
Glover Middle School took up a collection to help Renee’s parents pay for her funeral. A Glover parent association donated $300.
Neighbors are helping as well. The Bauer-Noland house has been inundated with home-cooked food, and the neighborhood has also organized a garage sale and bake sale this weekend.
Cindy Finke, who is helping organize the garage sale, said the effort has caused neighbors who didn’t know one another to come together as friends. “She is bringing a lot of people together, and she’s only 14 years old.”
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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WEEKEND BENEFIT SALE People living on the 2600 block of West Liberty Avenue will hold a bake sale and garage sale on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Donations can be made by calling Ester or Stan Holman at 325-5272. All proceeds will go toward the medical bills accrued by Renee Bauer.