Aimee Baker is excited for Christmas.
The 13-year-old girl from Union says she is looking forward to being with her family and giving her siblings their gifts.
The daughter of Korie and Todd Baker, Aimee has a rare form of incurable brain cancer called glioblastoma. After months and months in hospitals in Morgantown and Pittsburg, surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, doctors have said there is nothing more they can do to stop the cancer, shifting the focus to keeping Aimee Baker comfortable and free from pain.
And that is what Korie and Todd Baker are doing. They are keeping Aimee home, where she receives palliative and hospice care and weekly visits from her pediatrician.
Aimee is one of only 450 people in the U.S. with glioblastoma, and she has been living with it since she was diagnosed in 2021.
Korie Baker said the diagnosis came after Aimee was complaining about blurry vision in February 2021. Korie took Aimee to optometrist Tasso S. Butler who, after an examination, immediately suggested Aimee get an MRI. The family went to Greenbrier Valley Medical Center the next day.
The MRI revealed a golf ball-sized tumor in Aimee Baker’s brain.
“They immediately said, ‘Drive to Morgantown,’” said Korie Baker. “So, we went up that night.”
Aimee Baker went into the pediatric ICU at Ruby Memorial, where a surgery showed that the tumor was cancerous.
After chemotherapy, another surgery and radiation, Aimee Baker entered a research trial at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Doctors there halted the trial, however; because it was not working.
“The doctor said, ‘If there was anything I could do, I would,’” Korie Baker explains. “Only God can take care of it now. We’re not giving up; we’re just living each day.”
Right now, the Bakers’ days are filled with Christmas decorations and movies. Aimee’s bed is in the family living room which is decorated with pillows boasting the Grinch’s face, decorations, a fish tank and two Christmas trees, one of which is so large it reaches the ceiling. There are stockings hung from the fireplace, and Christmas movies play on the large screen television.
“This is Aimee Central,” Korie Baker quips.
Outside, the back yard is filled with inflatable decorations that were donated and delivered from Walmart.
All this is to bring joy to a little girl who, despite her illness, gives back in so many ways.
“She is very giving,” Korie Baker says of her daughter. “She is always thinking about others. When we went to Morgantown, she was always thinking about the nurses there.
“She made friends with the nurses. She couldn’t understand why no one knew their first names, because she knew them all. One of the nurses is having a baby, and Aimee has already sent her a baby gift.”
Korie Baker says that someone did a birthday fundraiser for Aimee that raised $800 for her to do anything she wanted.
Aimee Baker sent all the money to children’s homes and orphanages through Help Ministries, an organization affiliated with Todd Baker’s church where he is a pastor.
Not only is she giving, Aimee Baker is quirky and artistic, her mother says. Aimee likes sushi, Beatles records and Almond Joys. She loves her brothers and sister, and she loves the chickens that roam the back yard.
Most of all, Aimee Baker loves her faith.
“He is not a king; He is THE King,” Aimee Baker says. “I’m serving The King. It’s a privilege.
“I started saying that when I got rejected by chemo,” she says.
Aimee Baker says that if through her story she can bring one person to Christ, then having cancer is worth it.
“It’s hard when you probably won’t be OK,” says Korie Baker. “But you’ve got to stay strong. Sometimes we’ll have a little breakdown together, but we handle it; we can’t live there.”
Readers are invited to like and follow Aimee Baker’s Facebook page, Aimee’s Adventure, to keep up with Aimee and her family. She would also like to receive Christmas cards.
Cards can be mailed to Aimee’s Adventure, P.O. Box 123, Union, WV 24983. There is also a fund at the Bank of Monroe where people can donate to the family under the name of the Aimee E. Baker Benefit.
And finally, Korie Baker requests prayers.
“Please, tell your readers to pray,” Korie Baker says. “Get her name out there. Aimee says, ‘If one person comes to Christ, if one person knows Him, then my cancer’s worth it.’”
