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Caring for ailing mom, Bruin star grew up fast - Kirby Lee
Track and field: Sprinter Vincetta Mendola runs with the memory of
her mother, who died from cancer in 2000.
Vincetta Mendola celebrated her 18th birthday in April and recently
passed her driver's license test.
But adulthood came much sooner for the Wilson High senior sprinter.
Mendola first started driving at the age of 12 to transport her
cancer-stricken mother, Yvonne Sterling, to the hospital for
treatment and to pick up medicine. Things didn't get any easier when
her mother died at the start of her sophomore year, leaving Mendola
to be raised by her older sisters and her godmother.
"I am so used to her being right there and making sure that I was
on
the right track and staying on top of school and how to do things,'
Mendola said about her mother, who died in 2001 at age 53 of
multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow with no known cure.
"It was hard and it still is hard now. Everybody else has both
parents. I can't run and tell my mom something.'
This year, Mendola made the transition of transferring from
Birmingham High in Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley to Wilson.
Mendola's sister Gigi, a Cal State Fullerton senior, moved to Long
Beach so Vincetta could attend Wilson.
"I am glad that I am at Wilson. I am doing better, better than I
ever have done before,' Mendola said. "There were too many
distractions at Birmingham. It wasn't for me. I knew that I had to
get out to do better.'
Mendola, who won the L.A. City Section long jump title at Birmingham
as a junior, has been a welcome addition to the Wilson 400 relay
team.
Mendola ran on Wilson's runner-up 400 and 1,600 relays in the Southern
Section Division I finals at Cerritos College last Saturday. Mendola,
who has
attracted interest from UCLA, UNLV and Michigan State, was also a finalist
in the 100 and 200.
"Everything is better for me,' Mendola said. "I thought it was
going
to be hard for me to adjust but not at all. All the girls are really
friendly and really nice. They are good friends and I am glad to be
with them.'
College education for her children was among the greatest wishes of
Sterling. The other was to see Vincetta run with Gigi on the 400 and
1,600 relays, which they did.
"This is what I live for,' Sterling said at the time. "This
is the
highlight. I forget about everything when I am there watching them
run.'
Sterling was also athletic. She was an avid distance runner who
completed five marathons and played softball five nights a week as
the only woman in a men's league.
It was a shock to Vincetta at age 6 when her mother's nagging back
pain was diagnosed as cancer in 1991.
Sterlings vertebrae became so fragile that frac tures were caused
each time she switched hospital gurneys. She was hospitalized for
seven months while undergoing radiation, chemotherapy and a
bone-marrow transplant and told she had less than three years to
live in 1993.
Sterling outlived the prognosis but it was still a shock to Mendola
when her mother died in September, 2000. Vincetta's godmother, Mitchaelle
Maiden, was at the hospital during that fateful evening.
Maiden has tried to fill the void left by Sterling's death. Maiden's
daughter Amanda and Mendola have been friends since youth track at
age 6.
Mendola spent Christmas and Thanksgiving at Maiden's Woodland Hills
home. Maiden, who helped arrange Mendola's transfer to Wilson, often
drives Mendola to competitions.
"I knew in my heart that God had placed her in my life for some
reason,' Maiden said. "She's been like a gypsy with about nine
different places that she calls home. This kid has overcome
obstacles that most human beings will never have to encounter.'
There will be another big step for Vincetta when she graduates from
Wilson. Gigi, who will be the first in the family to graduate from
college, will be moving to New Orleans with her boyfriend, Kareem
Kelly, a Poly graduate who was selected in the NFL Draft by the
Saints.
As always, Mendola will persevere.
"My mother taught me to be strong and never give up in track, school
and in life period,' she said. " She wanted me to be a responsible
person when I grew up and never back down.'
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