Independence teenager is gone, but remembered through a Royals game

Mustard won the condiment race Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Tammy Mengel knew that her daughter, Gloria, would have approved.

“She had always picked mustard,” Mengel said. “And later on they played ‘Don’t Stop Believin’,’ the Journey song, which had been one of Gloria’s rehab cheering songs.

“That was hard.”

Gloria Mengel was an Independence teenager who for six years had battled cancer and leukemia and also dealt with blindness and various stroke-related issues. The 16-year-old died Sunday at Children’s Mercy Hospital.

On Tuesday, Gloria’s parents and brother attended the Kansas City Royals Wild Card Game. Among the 40,502 fans who together underwent a five-hour ordeal of anxiety, excitement and ultimate joyous release were Mengel, her husband, Dana, and their son, Emmanuel. They went in search of therapy, Mengel said.

They found all of that and more.

“The three of us needed to do something together that would take us away from what we were dealing with,” Mengel said.

“Sunday was a horrific experience for all of us,” added Dana Mengel, Gloria’s father.

“But the game was perfect therapy.”

Since August, Tammy Mengel had been in almost permanent residence at Children’s Mercy, staying with Gloria as she battled kidney failure, pneumonia and other issues. The last time her family had been able to attend a Royals game, Mengel said, had been in 2009. That’s when Gloria had been selected as an honorary third baseman for a Dream Factory of Greater Kansas City event at Kauffman Stadium.

Gloria’s challenges had begun the year before.

In 2008, when Gloria was 10, doctors diagnosed a brain tumor behind her eyes. Physicians declared her cancer-free several months later following several rounds of chemotherapy and 30 rounds of radiation.

The next year doctors diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia, caused by one of the chemotherapy drugs, Mengel said. A bone marrow transplant followed in 2010. That October, she started experiencing vision problems. Steroids administered during efforts to preserve her vision contributed to a weight gain of about 80 pounds.

She later underwent two hernia surgeries. During one, Gloria suffered a stroke that affected her speech and the right side of her body.

She spent much of 2012 working on her flexibility five days a week at the Rehabilitation Institute of Kansas City. That year a Children’s Mercy pediatrician described Gloria as a “medically complex” patient, meaning a patient who took multiple medications for several serious health issues. But she also had impressed doctors and therapists with her tenacity.

That was how it was at the end, Mengel said.

Around 4 a.m. Sunday, doctors woke Mengel, who was sleeping in the small bed near her daughter’s at Children’s Mercy. Gloria’s heart was stopping.

“They got it started again, and repeated the process several times,” Mengel said. But Gloria’s heart stopped beating at 7:10 a.m.

Gloria’s visitation is Friday at Charter Funerals Blue Ridge Chapel, 5000 Blue Ridge Cutoff, Kansas City.

In lieu of flowers, the Mengel family is asking friends to consider contributing to the Gloria “G-Lo” Mengel Memorial Fund at any U.S. Bank. Proceeds would be offered as contributions to several charitable agencies that helped Gloria and her family. The family also hopes to set up a scholarship fund at MelRoe’s School of Dance in Liberty.

Then came Monday. The family huddled. Should they watch the Royals game?

No, said Emmanuel, who found tickets on StubHub. They should go in person. They did.

“I think,” Tammy Mengel said, “Gloria was there with us.”