Kylie McGuire hugs her father, Austin, April 18, 2015. Austin had a one-day leave from his deployment in the Coast Guard. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
By Alissa Ambrose
When Cathi McGuire’s 15-year-old son, Austin, broke his arm skateboarding in January, the Hamilton mother of four was overwhelmed. After an exhausting trip to the emergency room, Cathi came home to a find a hot dinner of macaroni and cheese on the table and her her two younger sons, age 10 and 7, with their homework done and checked.
Her daughter, Kylie, had taken care of everything.
“No one asked her to, she just knew that when Austin came home and I came home, we would be tired and stressed out,” Cathi recalled, “and I was like ‘how many 13-year-olds can do that?’”
That night, Cathi decided to nominate her daughter for Operation Homefront’s 2015 Military Child of the Year—an award that recognizes young people who “demonstrate resilience and strength of character,” amid military life.
Kylie, whose father is deployed with the Coast Guard, was announced as a semi-finalist in the competition in mid-January.
While Kylie’s behavior on the evening of her brother’s accident may seem unusual for someone so young, the Crockett Middle School 8th grader is no stranger to responsibility. In addition to maintaining a straight A average, Kylie participates in student council, yearbook, the Bully Free Friends Club and softball.
As part of her student council activities, Kylie has organized care-package drives for deployed soldiers. Twice a year, she and her classmates create more than 100 packages including necessities like baby powder, socks and lotion. Kylie recognized the need for such support after her uncle was deployed in Iraq. She wrote him letters every week while he was gone and when he returned, he told her how much her correspondence had meant to him.
“I think it shows that there is actually somebody back over here, thinking about them and worrying about them,” Kylie said.
In addition to her hectic school schedule, Kylie still finds time to volunteer. She teaches Zumba to disabled young people at the Hamilton YMCA and prepares supplies for the Trenton soup kitchen through her church, Our Lady of Sorrows, in Hamilton.
While her schedule may sound exhausting, Kylie insists she prefers to stay busy.
“I always feel like there is something to do,” she said “I just know I could be doing something and I should be doing something and if I am sitting, I know there is somebody out there who could maybe have some help.”
The rigorous schedule also helps Kylie keep her mind off of missing her father. Lieutenant Commander Austin McGuire has been deployed to Louisiana, where he is helping to clean up the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, for the past 20 months.
“When he first left, I was really, really sad, and I didn’t really get out of bed unless it was for school,” Kylie said, “but now I have a reason to get out of bed … and I forget that I am missing him.”
Cathi McGuire sees a lot of her husband in her young daughter. Both are calm in a crisis and keen to tackle challenges head-on.
“She has her dad’s personality,” Cathi said “Where I start, ‘oh my gosh, oh my gosh,’ and I panic, she is like ‘ok mom, let’s take this one step at a time,’”
This ability to stay cool and collected carries over into her school life, where Kylie recently dissected a frog in science class. While her classmates were squeamish about cutting up the specimens, Kylie was reaching for the gloves.
Biology is her favorite subject and the young honor student dreams of attending Johns Hopkins medical school and one day becoming an emergency pediatrician at nearby CHOP.
Kylie’s dreams of entering the medical profession were partially inspired by her own experience as a patient at Cooper University hospital in Camden. Two years ago, Kylie, then an avid dancer, began having severe pain in her leg. Her doctors ordered an MRI and discovered a cluster of tumors on her femur. They turned out to be benign, but Kylie required surgery to remove them and months of physical therapy.
“I thought it was really scary, but I knew that they wouldn’t let anything happen to me. I knew I was in good hands,” Kylie said.
And despite the challenges of being a patient, she was also inspired by her own doctor.
“I saw the confidence that he had while helping all the other patients too and I said that was just what I wanted to be,” she said.
Science teacher Charles Eyster, who is also a veteran of the armed forces, has been a mentor to Kylie and a family friend during her father’s deployment. During his time having Kylie as a student, he has observed her to be a leader among her peers.
“She was a very mature student and realized and accepted the reality of not being able to have dad home as she had grown accustomed to all of her life,” Eyster told the Hamilton Post in an email.
While Kylie was not awarded the final prize in Military Child of the Year, her community, friends, and especially, family are proud of her achievements.
“I am amazed with her, I am amazed with all of them that they are my kids,” Cathi said. “They are such strong kids, and I can’t believe that they’re mine. My husband and I must have done something right.”
,
