Mount Greenwood girl gets wish, shares stage with Sox manager Ventura
By STEVE METSCH smetsch@southtownstar.com December 21, 2011 10:10PM
Chicago White Sox Manager Robin Ventura and 9-year-old Emily Beazley of the Make-A-Wish Foundation make a one-night special appearance in "A Christmas Carol" stage play. Before the performance Robin Ventura presented a Chicago White Sox jersey to the 9-year-old who has been recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. December 19, 2011 | Scott Stewart~Sun-Times
Updated: January 23, 2012 10:31AM
Robin Ventura’s acting skills will never earn him a Tony Award. But the White Sox’s new skipper did manage to make a sick little girl very happy Wednesday night. And that’s worth more to him than any acting prize.
Ventura and 9-year-old Emily Beazley, of Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community, had walk-on roles during Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” at the Goodman Theatre in downtown Chicago. The chance to hit the stage came thanks to theater officials, the Sox and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which tries to make wishes come true for children with life-threatening medical conditions.
Emily, who has Stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes, “has always wanted to be a star,” said her mother, Nadia Beazley.
She was just that Wednesday night, as she and Ventura were on stage together in several brief scenes early in the classic Christmas story, including one where Bob Cratchit wished them a Merry Christmas by name.
Both wore several layers of Victorian-era clothing, prompting Ventura to joke before the show, “Maybe I can wear this for the games in April. It’s pretty warm.”
Ventura, a father of four, flew in Tuesday from California just to do the show.
“Obviously, Emily has a wish to be on stage, and the White Sox as an organization always jump at the opportunity to help out with stuff like this,” he said.
Neither Emily nor Ventura had any previous acting experience.
“Really, the only acting (in baseball) is when you strike out and you act like it doesn’t bother you when you walk back to the dugout,” Ventura said.
Emily felt sick earlier in the day after a bout with chemotherapy, but she bounced back.
“She told me, ‘Maybe this is the night I’ll be founded,’ ” Nadia said.
Backstage, Ventura presented her with a No. 23 White Sox jersey with “Beazley” on back. He also joked that, having played in New York and Los Angeles, he knew people in both cities who could help with her acting career.
“She’s ready to go,” Ventura said, “and I can always say, ‘I knew her when ... ’ ”
Emily could hardly get over the opportunity.
“It’s really cool,” she said. “I was very excited. I could not wait for this day to come.”
Emily, who turned 9 in September, was like any second-grader last spring.
“She never walked anywhere. She ran. She bounced,” Nadia said.
But those happy-go-lucky days screeched to halt in April when she was diagnosed.
“We were outside, grilling steaks, Emily and her sister went to play basketball. Emily ran 10 steps and then bent over in pain. Later that night, her lips were purplish blue in color. She had been vomiting. I thought something was going around at school,” Nadia said.
Emily saw a doctor two days later and learned her left lung had collapsed and filled with fluid. The right lung was down to 20 percent capacity, Nadia said. Emergency surgery at midnight found cancer in lymph nodes in her chest and neck.
“And at 7:30 the next morning, they told me she had cancer,” Nadia said.
The diagnosis was crushing.
“My world just fell. My world ended. She’s my life. I do everything for my kids, Emily and Olivia,” Nadia said.
Emily “is doing better now” and has battled through treatment to where she now takes 21 pills every week. Homeschooled, she soon may return to third grade at Mount Greenwood Elementary, Nadia said.
Far from a shy girl, Emily “tells people about her lymphoma all the time. She shows them her scar,” Nadia said.
Emily’s hair, which was light to medium brown, is growing in black thanks to the chemotherapy, Nadia said.
Emily was definitely upbeat backstage before her stage debut. She and her family went to dinner with Ventura before the show, something that may have thrilled Nadia more than Emily. Nadia was a big fan of Ventura during his 10 seasons with the White Sox that ended in 1998.
“I wanted to marry him when I was growing up,” Nadia, now 35, confessed.
“Oh, my God, I loved him. My dad liked him, too. He’d flip over in his grave if he knew about tonight,” she said of her late father, Raul Lopez.
It’s a South Side family, which means they all cheer for the White Sox, including Emily and her father Ed.
This marks the fifth year the Goodman Theatre has helped a sick child by having them in “A Christmas Carol,” Make-A-Wish spokeswoman Jessica Miller said.
“Emily wants to be a star, is very interested in acting and wants to be a public figure. Next year, she’ll visit the set of her favorite TV show, ‘Shake It Up,’ on the Disney Channel. This is something to keep her spirits up in the meantime,” Miller said.
Make-A-Wish helps about 800 children in Illinois every year, Miller said.
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