Ursuline graduate overcomes cancer to earn diploma – with honors

May 30, 2015 at 12:01a.m.

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Five years ago, Aislinn Rubinic was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Today, she graduates with honors from

Ursuline High School.

In between came surgery, hospital stays, chemotherapy treatments and lost hair for Aislinn – and tears and worry for her parents, Patrick and Jeannine Rubinic.

Aislinn missed most of eighth grade at St. Rose School in Girard and much of her freshman year at Ursuline, but she still managed to graduate on time.

“She was diagnosed the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2010,”

Patrick said.

Aislinn, then 13 and the oldest Rubinic child, had complained of being tired. Her parents suspected mononucleosis.

The family went to Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley in Boardman where, after a chest X-ray, a doctor told her parents that Aislinn had three masses in her chest. He believed it was cancer. Patrick and Jeannine didn’t want to tell Aislinn until doctors were sure.

An ambulance transported

Aislinn to the Akron Children’s main facility for more tests, and Hodgkin’s lymphoma was confirmed.

Jeannine stayed at the hospital for 10 days with Aislinn. Patrick drove back and forth between Akron and the family’s Girard home to care for the couple’s three other children, Maura, Tess and Patrick, crying and talking to God along the way.

Aislinn cried, but only once. Her mother says Aislinn keeps her emotions close.

“Even at 13, she was very self-aware and private,” Jeannine said. “She pulls in. That’s her personality.”

When her hair started to fall out shortly before Christmas because of the treatment, Aislinn took back some control. She wanted to shave it off.

“It was everywhere and it was driving me crazy,” she said.

Jeannine cut her daughter’s hair. Patrick used a razor to finish the job.

Aislinn adopted the attitude that the illness and the treatment were something she had to go through, Patrick said.

Aislinn already had taken a placement test for Ursuline, where both of her parents graduated in 1982. She didn’t return to St. Rose that year, but because of her performance on the test, she was able to begin at Ursuline the following fall.

“Ursuline has been wonderful — to her and to us,” Patrick said.

Not being able to attend some of the end-of-year activities at St. Rose bothered Aislinn. Her friends continued to get together on weekends, and while she didn’t want or expect them to stop, she felt like she should be there, too.

She missed much of her freshman year because of the illness, working at home and using tutors to try to stay caught up. She wore her favorite pink hat.

“I was the hat girl,” she said. “People have told me, ‘I knew you because you were the girl in the hat.’”

Math, which isn’t Aislinn’s best subject, gave her the most problems. But she got through it.

“We’ve always said that grades are important, but we just wanted her to do her best,” Patrick said.

“Cancer really teaches you to put things in perspective,” Jeannine added.

It also teaches you to take one day at a time, she said.

The cancer-free diagnosis came in summer 2011. Even four years later, a swollen lymph node raises alarms.

The family says it’s always in the backs of their minds.

In August, Aislinn will begin studying history at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Today, both Patrick and Jeannine expect to cry when their eldest daughter gets her diploma.

But not Aislinn, who will reserve any tears for when she leaves for college.