'Unsung hero' on her first medical mission

After packing for medical clinics for 17 years, Michelle Villasenor finally got to go on a clinic herself.

Michelle is developmentally delayed. She is 25 years old but functions at a second grade level academically though much higher with living skills.

“She’s the unsung hero of Lighthouse Medical Missions,” said Cheryl Tormey, executive secretary of the Santa Monica-based charity group.

Today, Dr. Bob Hamilton and his crew open doors to the poor sick of Guatemala City – and Michelle, with her ever-present smile, will be right next to her mom, a vocational nurse.

“She touches hearts,” said Dal Basile, 59, who originally didn’t want her daughter to come.

Michelle has worked countless late nights for almost two decades helping her mom pack boxes for clinics. But she gets confused with too much commotion and suffers migraines. Her language skills are low due to aphasia, and she could easily get lost.

So Dal initially opposed the idea of bringing Michelle. On the longer trips (most frequently Lighthouse Medical Missions go to Africa), it is simply out of the question. When Dr. Bob asked Dal to bring Michelle, Dal replied, “Absolutely not.”

Then she mulled Dr. Bob’s motivations. “Dr. Bob thought it would be nice for her to see what all her hard works goes to,” Dal said.

And Dal also weighed the fact that two of her other adult daughters, Andrea Campos and Christy Villasenor, would be along to help care for Michelle.

Ultimately she changed her mind.

For two decades, Lighthouse Medical Missions has opened its doors to all sorts of volunteers. Most want to give back of the many blessings they enjoy in the developed world. Some come curious to see the appalling poverty of developing countries. Probably everyone returns forever changed, more appreciative, more sensitive to the way people live in the world.

While doctors and volunteers come back to report before churches and other crowds their successes and experiences, Michelle has worked anonymously behind the scenes. She patiently packs vitamins, hygiene kids and other medical items, which are painstakingly counted and prepared to be freely disbursed. It’s a thankless, tedious job, but she does it with love.

Michelle has even supervised others packing boxes.

“Anyone who has a special needs child knows that it’s like having an angel from God,” Dal said. “You learn from them. You grow from them. You see their challenges, and you don’t have those challenges, so you appreciate life more every day.

“Everything Michelle does requires an extra effort, and she never complains,” Dal added. “She does everything with joy. It’s a lesson every day that I watch her.”

This is not Michelle’s first time out of America. Almost against Dal’s will, her adult daughters took Michelle to Puerto Vallarta one year to be with their biological dad. The three girls all pitched in to take care of Michelle on that trip – and she returned fine.

Maybe the earlier travel success helped persuade Dal to include Michelle on this trip.

Michelle grew up in Santa Monica. She attended Lighthouse Church School, where she broke specialists’ predictions that she wouldn’t talk until age 9 – she started talking at 3.

At Lighthouse, she started in the kindergarten, and different teachers took upon themselves to teach her to read. Michelle graduated from sixth grade. She attended Culver City schools to learn living skills, but upon her high school graduation, she chose to graduate with Lighthouse Christian Academy.

Now, Michelle gives back to the school that gave so much to her. She’s a teacher’s assistant for the kindergarten teacher.

“She just loves the little ones,” Dal said. “When they cry, she calms them down. She’ll sit next to them and read a book to them.”

Michelle worked a business with her mother’s help for a while. She laundered church members’ clothes at her home. But eventually it got too stressful for her, Dal said, and she closed the business down.

Due to her developmental delay, Michelle will need her mother’s care, or of someone like her, for the rest of her life.

When she was younger, Michelle got referred to the McBride public school for special needs children. But Dal never enrolled her there because many of those kids are more severe cases. Instead she opted for what specialists increasingly are recommending: trying to integrate her in regular society.

The Guatemalan clinic lasts two days in the Liceo Bilingue La Puerta today and Tuesday before moving to Villa Nueva for two days outside of the capital.

“Michelle brings a wonderful childlike kindness of heart to the mission,” said Dr. Bob. “That kindness is very important as we treat people.”