It is a hard lesson to learn, when it comes to cancer, we are often at the mercy of fate and modern medicine, but for some students at the Keystone School, feeling helpless, turned into action, and a caring gesture that really took off.
"It's something small, but we want to show our love," said Keystone Junior Serena Agrawal.
Keystone students have been making paper cranes by the bag full, they represent a bag full of well wishes for a teacher and her husband.
"We just really wanted to show our love and support for him while he battles pancreatic cancer," said Agrawal.
She came up with the idea after math teacher Deborah Preston's husband was diagnosed, colored paper, cut and creased into thousands of cranes.
"There is a Japanese legend that says if you fold one thousand paper cranes, you will have good luck brought upon you and those surrounding you, so we wanted to bring good luck and good fortune and hope to those cancer patients," said Agrawal.
On this day, in the Keystone lunch room, they are getting a final count. Cranes are being made by the crate load, a plan devised by the students, all done in their free time to pay tribute to someone they love.
"We really wanted to show our support for her and her family while she's going through this tough time, reciprocate all the love that she's shown us in the form of these cranes," Says Agrawal.
"These kids took the time out to say we love this teacher, we love this community, and did something amazing," said Bill Spedding, the Head of the Keystone Upper School.
So while one table counts, one constructs, the goal of making 1,000 cranes, is now close to 2,000. They will be strung together and given to the START Center, and the rest for some of the littlest cancer patients at Children's Hospital.
A Japanese legend comes to life, a school's gesture for a teacher, spreading hope to others on paper wings.
"To us, this really shows as high school students we can care about our community and we can show that we support the people we love and we can make a difference in the San Antonio community, as well as the world," said Agrawal.
For a list of recent stories Steve Spriester has done, click here.