Caley Camarillo battled cystic fibrosis for nearly 12 years before she passed away June 13 and “earned her wings,” according to family members. Though managing the fatal disease accounted for a majority of her daily routine, she didn’t let it define her and she refused to let her illness crush her positivity—or hamper her smile.
Camarillo was a loving daughter, sister, an honor roll student at Solorsano Middle School, a writer, an artist, an inspiration to others and a fighter.
Camarillo was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis shortly after a routine checkup with a pediatrician when she was 1-month-old. Since the diagnosis, Camarillo’s parents, Martin and Teresa, fought to keep her as healthy and as happy as possible.
But on June 10, Teresa said doctors presented the family with an ultimatum: Caley was facing intubation—a procedure where a tube is placed in the trachea. Caley passed away a few days later.
For Martin and Teresa, the loss of their oldest daughter is incalculable.
“From the start of my day to nighttime, all my routines of a day with Caley have been taken from me,” Martin said. “Life feels incomplete and the pain is unlike anything I can describe.”
“Every day without my Caley is tough,” Teresa said. “I have moments when I feel that I can pull it together; those don’t last long. She was my life—my everyday life. I don’t know any different. I was only strong because of her and without her I don’t know how to be strong anymore.”
Martin said he and Caley planned to watch Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, a longtime family friend and Caley’s favorite boxer, make his comeback to the ring June 21.
On April 6, Guerrero sponsored an event that raised $15,000 for Caley’s medical care and he presented her with her own title belt during a ceremony where Caley was treated like royalty.
“Robert: Just know Caley is in your corner and on team Guerrero. You both have had tough battles in these past years,” Martin wrote on Facebook, referencing Casey Guerrero, Robert’s wife, and her battle with leukemia. “Neither one of you ever backed down no matter how tough the fight. You both dug deep and overcame the challenge. Giving up isn’t in our blood.”
Throughout her life, Caley has felt the undying love of her family and support from the community.
When Caley was 4, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Bay Area sponsored a trip for the Camarillos to visit Disneyland. Caley fell ill during the adventure and had to return home prematurely.
“I couldn’t enjoy it. I was really tired, was coughing and didn’t really want to do anything,” Caley said in a March interview with the Dispatch within her hospital room at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. “We also had tickets to go to Knott’s Berry Farm so I didn’t get to do that either because I got sick. I didn’t really get to finish my Make-A-Wish.”
Hearing that Caley’s fairy tale didn’t have a proper ending, community members pulled together and the San Martin Lion’s Club sponsored an all-expenses-paid return trip.
The Gilroy Fire Department took Caley on a ride-along in 2010, and firefighters whisked her around in a full-sized engine. During the March interview, Caley said she got her own earpiece and microphone to talk to the firefighters mid-ride.
“They let me hit the siren button,” she said during the March interview. “They let me monitor the speed and tell them if they were going too fast.”
A Dispatch reporter asked if they ever went too fast.
“Many times,” Caley said, grinning.
Fast forward to March, when Caley was placed in the intensive care unit. While Caley was sitting in her hospital bed, Teresa recorded a video of her pleading to be allowed to sit in the audience of one of her favorite television shows—Ellen Degeneres’ “Ellen Show.” Her classmates at Solorsano wrote “Ellen” staff asking them to make an exception to the audience age requirement—13—for Caley.
But she was never well enough to go.
As her disease flared up and her lung function deteriorated, Caley was again hospitalized. Teresa stayed by Caley’s bedside every hour of every day—from sleeping on the couch to helping Caley air out her freshly painted nails.
“My mom and I have probably the best relationship a mother and daughter could ever have,” Caley told the Dispatch in March, glancing towards Teresa. “Whenever we do something, it’s always me and my mom.”
Caley was the kind of girl who would play an Xbox action adventure game with Taylor Swift playing in the background. Oftentimes, when hospitalized, she would listen to her favorite music through headphones, following along closely with the words on the lyric sheet. She kept a diary and often wrote her own fiction. Caley loved her friends and family, including—of course—her two puppies, Macey and Mason.
While a child at heart, Caley seemed to be well aware of her own mortality in early June, Teresa said. A few weeks before she died, Caley had one last request of her parents. According to Martin, while in the family’s living room, turned to her parents and began speaking “in a serious but nervous voice.”
“If something goes wrong, can you please take me with you wherever you go?” Caley asked. “Please spread my ashes in the seven seas so I can swim with the dolphins and enjoy the amazing places I couldn’t go.”
“I felt a cold chill go down my spine and had to fight back the tears,” Teresa said, recalling her immediate reaction. “I knew in my gut my daughter’s disease was getting worse (but) I had no idea Caley knew in her heart her time was coming.”
Teresa and Martin promised to make Caley’s wishes come true. Now, they’re asking for help paying for her funeral services and requesting donations to travel to many of the places Caley hoped to visit one day and spread her remains.
Even though Caley is gone, family, friends, other with illnesses who Caley connected—and those lucky enough to have met her—won’t forget her spirit and smile, many community members told the Dispatch. Her legacy still lives on at a certain time of day for her family members.
According to Teresa, Caley believed 11:11 a.m. was “a lucky time of day.” For as long as she could remember, Teresa said she’d set her alarm to ring then. As the alarm would sound, Teresa would shout out the time. On cue, Caley would make her daily wish, while Teresa would drop to her knees and pray for a cure for cystic fibrosis and pray Caley is cured.
“I’m sure my prayer and her wish were the same,” Teresa said. “Now, I take that time every day to tell her how much I love her and how much I miss her.”
