When Braylan Covol blew out the candles on his birthday cake, ready to dive into his first slice, his mother, Jamie Barbarich, took his head in her hands. She tried to wrap her head around the fact that he is already ten years old.
“It makes me feel old. That’s good,” she said. Nine years and nine months earlier, Jamie was told she would not see her three-month-old son, Braylan, turn one.
In July of 2006, Jamie woke up with pins and needles in her right arm and leg, prompting her to go to the emergency room. She called her husband, Brian Covol, to tell him something was wrong and he replied, “It’s not like you have a brain tumor.” Shortly after, Jamie was given an MRI. She had a brain tumor the size of a Christmas orange compressing the entire left side of her brain.
Layton Covol leans in to give his mother, Jamie Barbarich, a peanut buttery kiss to apologize for being rowdy at dinner time. His loud behavior worsens Barbarichs headaches caused by a brain tumor she has been battling for almost 10 years.
Today, after many procedures and treatments, and unable to have the cancer removed completely, Jamie continues to fight any way she can. She does her best in not letting cancer control her life. She continues to do the work she loves teaching a class for special needs kids at Mount Nittany Elementary School and she spends as much time as possible with her husband and two sons.
Layton Covol, 6, celebrates scoring a goal on his brother, Braylan, 10, in the foyer of their home.
Beginning mid-March of this year, Post-Gazette photographer Haley Nelson was able to get an inside view on the Covol family and tell their story through photos.
Jamie has defied overwhelming odds with an unwavering positive attitude. She has taught herself how to walk again after an operation and ignores her chronic headaches in order to have a normal life. Her story is one of cancer, but it is also a story of love and resilience.
“We can’t control what happens to our family, but we can control our attitude.”
Jamie Barbarich, 36, reaches out her arms to show the nurse her veins before getting her MRI scan at the Geisinger Greys Woods Medical Center.Jamie rubs her eyes as she waits for her husband, Brian, to finish playing video games with their son, Layton, so he can squeeze her head to ease the pain of her headache. In the evenings, Jamie’s headaches worsen to the point that her eyes water so she uses an ice pack and pressure for relief.Jamie Barbarich reads a bedtime story to her son, Layton Covol.Brian Covol squeezes the head of his wife, Jamie Barbarich, in order to ease the pain of her headache.Jamie Barbarich holds out a tablet to lead a student from her special needs class down the track at the Special Olympics held at the Penn State Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track. Jamie is passionate about working with special needs kids and has continued to go to work at Mount Nittany Elementary School through the ups and downs of her health.Jamie gives her son, Layton, a thumbs up during hockey practice at Pegula Ice Arena. Not all of her hair has grown back since her radiation treatment.Jamie Barbarich struggles to get her son, Layton Covol, into his hockey goalie gear before practice at the Pegula Ice Arena at Penn State University.Jamie Barbarich, 36, walks with her son, Braylan Covol, up the driveway to their home in State College, Pa.Jamie watches over as Layton and their neighbor, Sarah Riccomini, ride their bikes in the cul-de-sac.Jamie Barbarich and her husband, Brian Covol, prepare dinner for their sons Braylan and Layton.
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