Make-A-Wish Wisconsin celebrates anniversary year with milestone wish

MILWAUKEE - April is World Wish Month, a global movement of wish granting in honor of the founding wish and the creation of Make-A-Wish. In Wisconsin, our state’s chapter is celebrating an anniversary year with a milestone wish. 

Prologue

For certain artists, music isn’t just a part of them. It’s everything – their passion, their purpose. And in the case of Lulu Altman, the reason they’re alive.

"I don’t think that I would have survived," the 18-year-old stated. "Without music."

Lulu is living proof that sometimes when you wish upon a star, you become one. In February, Make-A-Wish celebrated 40 years in Wisconsin by granting its 8,000th wish.

"The gift of Make-A-Wish is that it is not only life-affirming," said Make-A-Wish Wisconsin President and CEO Patti Gorsky. "But it keeps life in perspective."

Milestone moments don’t happen overnight, certainly not ones of this magnitude. Lulu’s dream to sing with a full orchestra was the result of weeks of rehearsal and years of struggle.

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"(Lulu) started to sing and I went, ‘Oh, this is going to be terrific,'" said Carter Simmons, Artistic and Music Director for the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. "And it was just encouraging her to tell the stories of her songs."

Stephen Sondheim, the late master of the American musical, once said, 'All the best performers bring to their role something more.' Here’s what Lulu brought to her performance, told in four parts.

"All of them have special little pockets in my life," Lulu said. "And in my treatment."

"September Song"

Lulu fell in love with musicals early and easily.

"She was two and she was singing," said her mother, Marjorie Altman. "She had this perfect pitch. It would blow people away."

'Les Mis' is one thing, but how many kids dive into translations of, say, German composer Kurt Weill?

"Oh, there’s the German singer," Lulu remembered. "Now I’ve got to find an English singer so I can actually know what’s going on."

Lulu started voice lessons when she was eight. A trip to New York City gave her a taste of Broadway.

"I have to make something like this part of my life," Lulu said.

It also changed her life forever.

"Pink"

The trip ended abruptly when a nosebleed wouldn’t stop for days. Back home, there were signs of internal bleeding. Lulu spent her 10th birthday in the hospital.

"I remember at one time," said Lulu. "There was up to four or five blood draws a day."

Test after test finally revealed an autoimmune disease that kept her blood from clotting.

"You know, she just toughs it out," Marjorie said. "But here I am as an adult and I’m scared."

Chemo and steroids pushed it into remission. Lulu continued singing, winning dozens of competitions.

"I was doing really well," Lulu said. "And then I got sick."

The worst was yet to come. And 'Pink,' a song about a woman forced to let go of the company Lulu created, hit differently.

"In the song she lists everything that she had to work for," Lulu stated. "And then – pshh – it’s gone."

"As If We Never Said Goodbye"

Only if you truly love something will you feel the pain when it’s taken away.

"I’ve been singing that song since I was eight," said Lulu.

A few years ago doctors found a blood clot in her brain and eventually diagnosed her with Lupus, a rare disease without a cure where your immune system attacks your own body.

"I couldn’t walk down the hallway without feeling exhausted," Lulu remembered.

A rupture in Lulu's kidney sent her back to the ER for emergency surgeries. Her lungs filled with fluid. She needed five blood transfusions. And most notably for Lulu, she couldn’t breathe on her own. 

"I just remember thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sing this again like I used to,’ " Lulu said. "Which was really hard." 

Around then, her doctors mentioned Make-A-Wish Wisconsin. Lulu dreamed of singing with a full orchestra at a time when physically that was impossible.

But slowly, over time it came back.

"All of a sudden there it was," Marjorie said. "The voice was back."

In the musical ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ a faded film star returns to a movie set.

"And she’s singing this song as in, ‘Look, I’m back,’ " said Lulu. " 'As if we never said goodbye’ to music."

"Maybe This Time"

For the past year, as Lulu recovered, she’s had this to hold onto.

"Something’s here, something’s coming," said Lulu. "Something good is going to happen."

"Last week she left rehearsal," Marjorie said. "And she was like, ‘I did really great Mom. This is so much fun.’ "

All of it built to her concert at the Warner Grand Theater.

‘September Song,’ her life-long love of music.

‘Pink,’ all of it gone in an instant.

‘As if We Never Said Goodbye,’ her grand return.

And ‘Maybe This Time,’ her rousing final number.

"Maybe this time I finally have something in my life, in my world that’s really good and really positive," Lulu said. "It’s here, great. Let’s start something different now."

Epilogue

So what does a performer get from all they bring to a role? How about a standing ovation, for starters.

Lulu’s voice, backed by that magnificent orchestra, brought down the house.

"Lulu brought it all today," said Gorsky, the Make-A-Wish Wisconsin CEO. "It was amazing. Just goose-bump inducing."

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It was all beyond her wildest dreams.

"It’s surpassed them, to be honest," said Lulu. "It’s insane."

Lulu will never be totally in the clear. That’s the way it is with a chronic disease. But here’s the true magic of Make-A-Wish. The wish isn’t the end, it’s the beginning.

"When you have a critical illness, thinking about the future can be difficult," said Marjorie. "They’ve given her, sort of, a broader view of what her future can be."

You better believe this shining star will have an encore. 

You can learn more about Make-A-Wish Wisconsin and the nationwide push to recruit one million new WishMakers.