Giving thanks for Miranda, heaven’s newest soccer star

We’ve got Thanksgiving this week, but no big deal, I give thanks every day of my life that I don’t live in Angryville.

I spend most days giving thanks. Thanks to the wife and daughter, for example, who will pack pillows on our five-hour drive to Arizona today, which will encourage them to fall asleep. Thanks for peace and quiet.

I give thanks Hometown Buffet will be open to serve dinner Thursday knowing the other daughter will be trying to cook a turkey for the first time.

I give thanks there’s tryptophan in turkey, knowing the Bagger will gorge himself.

I give thanks we have someone like Tim Leiweke, who brings us Beckham, because what is life without laughter?

I give thanks to the Screaming Meanie, who is trying to figure out whether Dodgers fans prefer Little League fields or Manny Ramirez, because what is life without laughter?

I give thanks because The Times has the No. 1 columnist in the land in Plaschke, because what is life without laughter?

Page 2 desperately needs knuckleheads like Al Thornton and the yokels living in San Diego, but I’m thankful not everyone takes sports so seriously, a long list of sports folks, celebrities and Times readers donating more than $1 million the last few years to help sick kids locally.

Folks like Scully & Wooden, Joe Torre, Mike Scioscia and Donald Sterling, sure.

But more folks like John, who just wants to donate $100 for every goal his kids score while playing soccer, eventually sending a $1,000 check to Mattel’s and writing, “You can’t believe the look on their faces when they scored and knew they were helping a sick child.”

Local businessman Mark Verge takes an interest in the hospital, puts together a website -- bidsforkids.org -- and is now auctioning off lunches with Ben Howland, Jordan Farmar and Page 2, dinner with Bill Walton and shooting lessons with Baron Davis.

What a great idea, donate money to help sick kids and teach Davis how to shoot better at the same time and maybe curing what ails the Clippers.

Mike Massey e-mails out of nowhere to say the Piping Industry Progress & Education Trust Fund of the plumbers and pipe fitters union would like to buy $2,000 worth of toys for the kids. Who knew Santa is a plumber?

TAKE A walk down the children’s cancer ward, bald kids on the right, bald kids on the left, parents parked beside each of their beds -- in many cases 24 hours a day -- and then leave to be with your own kids. There’s no better reason to give thanks.

“I know I will be very thankful for the day when children in care don’t have to go through what they have to go through to be normal,” says Lisa Beck, one of those parents on the left side of the hall who was there 24 hours a day for the better part of 18 months.

Miranda Beck is 10 when she enters Mattel’s with leukemia, no guarantee of a happy ending -- chemo, radiation and pills doing what they can.

And the Clippers think they’ve got it tough.

One year ago at this time, Miranda is in a wheelchair but strong enough to attend the kids’ Christmas party at the John R. Wooden Center.

“I’ve got her picture with Santa Lasorda right here,” Lisa says. It’s a good night.

Later the chemo, radiation and the pills work, Miranda beats the leukemia, a parent’s prayer answered only to discover there is another hill to climb.

“It’s a surprise,” Lisa says. The ordeal apparently has been just too much for her little body, and so Miranda dies Oct. 13.

“I know she’s up there playing soccer,” Lisa says to screams of “Oh no,” from Page 2, “not soccer in heaven.”

“Oh yes,” Lisa laughs, “there’s soccer in heaven and right now as we speak I believe she’s forming her little team. She loves to run . . . “

IN THE next few days, because it’s Thanksgiving, some folks probably will take a break from their economic concerns and Thursday football games to be thankful for what they have.

But where will that leave Lisa & Russ Beck?

“I’m thankful for the 12 years I had with my Miranda,” Lisa says. “I raised a very beautiful child, and she was who I wanted her to be, a truly loving and kind girl. We were very close.

“I have a lot of faith in God, so I never asked, ‘Why her?’ Miranda and I prayed every night, but I just never questioned what was happening. I got angry at Him, though, for taking her away; I mean very angry. But now I just hope things will get better for other children who are facing the same ordeal.”

Now like so many of the local sports folks, celebrities and readers who have helped Mattel’s the best way they can, the Becks are doing the same.

Lisa has been back to the hospital twice to lend support to children and parents still hoping for miracles, and now the Becks will raise funds in Miranda’s name to further research at Mattel’s.

“If we can get it so they have to take just one less pill, it will make a difference,” Lisa says, the day-to-day ordeal still fresh in her mind. “It’s so hard on these kids, and then to lose one, it just leaves a big hole in your heart.

“But I look at people now with children and I smile a lot. I hope people give their child a hug every day. I know I gave Miranda a hug every day of her life, and two or three many days. Children are just so special.”

Happy Thanksgiving.

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t.j.simers@latimes.com