Idris and Marina: Finding Safety So Far From Home

Idris is on the move.

At the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Carolinas, the not-quite-one-year-old crawls across the floor and pulls himself up to stand – small milestones that, not long ago, his mother Marina wasn’t sure she would get to see. He is doing so well, in fact, that a stay originally expected to last until November will end early. This July, Idris and Marina are going home.

But home is a long way from Greenville. Marina was born in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, and her journey to the House began there, during a high-risk pregnancy, when doctors told her that her son would be born with a condition affecting both of his hands and both of his feet.

“They told me there were no hospitals or equipment in Mexico ready to attend to a case like my baby’s,” Marina recalls. So she did the only thing she could: she gathered what she had and crossed into the United States, settling in Tucson, Arizona, where Idris was born.

Idris’ hand surgeries were completed at a hospital in Tucson. His feet were more complicated. When the local specialist was unable to move forward with the care Idris needed, Marina went looking for help and found Shriners. The Shriners team knew exactly where to send her: to a specialist at Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, South Carolina, nearly 28 hours away by car.

It meant leaving her job in Mexico behind. It meant traveling farther from home than she ever expected. And it meant trusting strangers in a place she had never seen.

“I was so worried,” Marina said. “I wouldn’t be making any money. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do.”

She didn’t have to figure it out alone. Marina and Idris had already been welcomed by RMHC of Southern Arizona during their two years of treatment in Tucson – coming and going across the border for surgeries and appointments. When it became clear the family needed to travel to South Carolina, the team in Arizona reached out directly to RMHC of the Carolinas CEO Marti Spencer. One House passed the family gently to another.

“They knew everything about my baby’s situation,” Marina said. “They put us in contact with the staff here.”

Marina arrived not knowing what to expect. She had been praying.

“I was blind about the situation,” she admits. “I didn’t know anything about the House.” What she found surprised her: the size of it, the warmth of it, and most of all, the feeling that she and Idris were safe.

“Even if I don’t have a single dollar with me, I know we’re going to be okay,” she said. “This is a place where I can feel safe.”

The small comforts carry her through the hardest days. Some evenings, after surgeries and therapies, she simply doesn’t have the energy left to cook and dinner is already waiting.

“It’s nice to be received with a plate of dinner after a long day on the road,” she said. Other nights, she cooks in the House kitchen, making healthy meals for the two of them. She has claimed a favorite spot in the smaller living room – cozy, quiet, a place to rest with Idris and breathe.

What she didn’t anticipate was the community.

The House, Marina found, was full of families from across Latin America, each carrying their own version of her story. They cook for one another. They trade recipes – she’s learned to make Ecuadorian and Panamanian dishes. And when one of them is struggling, the others step in.

She remembers one afternoon when Idris, active and loud as ever, was having a hard time while she tried to cook. A fellow guest, Hamlet, a father from the Dominican Republic, offered to take him. Then a volunteer named Mary brought Idris to visit the House’s therapy dogs. He was nervous at first, then delighted.

“I don’t know how to describe the feeling,” Marina said. “Maybe it’s compassion. It made me feel like we are loved here.”

It’s not lost on her how different this season could have looked. Without the House, she said, she would likely be somewhere far darker, unable to work, unable to fund Idris’ care, frightened and alone.

“I think I would have been really depressed and hopeless,” she said. “But because of this organization, I found hope again to continue his treatment even when I don’t have a job, even when I don’t have any money.”

She credits the donors, sponsors and volunteers she may never meet.

“For me, who doesn’t have anything, it means a lot,” she said. “It feels like a miracle. I was praying — and it was answered, because of all of you.”

For now, the family is looking ahead. Today, Idris is taking his first steps and growing stronger every day. Read Marina and Idris’s full story at the link in our bio.

Idris will return to Greenville next year to complete his foot surgery, and then for yearly visits to adjust his prosthetic as he grows. Marina and her mother hope to give back the only way that feels right — by becoming volunteers themselves.

She is even thinking of writing a book one day, so that other parents in her position know they are not alone.

“I want people to know they are supported,” she said. “And their babies will be safe.”

She already wears that pride on her sleeve or rather, on Idris’. She had a little shirt made for him, printed with the Ronald McDonald House logo.

“I’m so proud to be part of the Ronald McDonald House,” she said.