Smiling DC Fourth-Grader Who Fought Brain Tumor Dies Just Before Thanksgiving, Family Says

By Zak Failla From Daily Voice

A fourth-grader whose smile carried him through an aggressive brain tumor and years of treatment has died just before the holidays, leaving classmates, teachers, and his community heartbroken.

His name was Jhuniel Saldana Vargas — a boy who came to the United States already sick, but still thinking about everyone else.

When his family left the Dominican Republic, his mother shared that he was so worried about other kids having less than he did that he made careful plans to give his toys to neighbor children who needed them. 

That was who he was — generous even when life was already asking too much of him.

And then there was the smile. 

His family said it was the first thing anyone noticed. A smile that stuck with him “no matter the situation,” fading only in his “moments of intense pain.” 

Jhuniel Saldana Vargas

GoFundMe

Even as the tumor worsened, he stayed that way — soft, warm, present, grateful. A happy kid in the middle of something adults can barely comprehend.

He loved music.

He loved dancing — especially to the rhythms of home, the Dominican Republic.

He loved telling stories.

And that last part wasn’t small.

This wasn’t “kid rambling.”

This kid could talk.

Jhuniel Saldana Vargas

GoFundMe

Teachers said “even as a second-grader, he could tell stories for hours with animation, emotion, and vivid details down to the food, cars, houses, descriptions of his uncles, grandfather, neighborhood characters, and the like.” 

Saldana Vargas could pull you into his world so completely that being his audience felt like being inside the story — seeing what he saw, tasting what he remembered, living in the colors and sounds of the home he left behind.

He was a friend.

He was a light in a hallway.

He was the kid other kids gravitated toward.

His teacher, Drew Thomas, said simply that he “recently lost another of my students to a brain tumor,” calling his death the second such loss in five months. Thomas said he spoke “for his family, and my coworkers,” noting how devastating the loss has been, especially so close to the holidays.

Jhuniel died just before Thanksgiving after several years of fighting — bravely, his family said — against an “aggressive brain tumor.” He was a fourth grader at Noyes Elementary.

His parents often couldn’t work because they stayed by his side through treatment, appointments, symptoms, and setbacks. But they never left him. Never stepped back. Never gave him less than everything they had.

His community is now returning that love.

A GoFundMe set up for the family has raised more than $3,500 in the days following his death. Those looking to donate can do so here.