At two years of age, Lulu was always carrying a tune. When she was three, she had her tonsils taken out and had severe bleeding as her body struggled to clot. At age nine, while in New York listening to musicals on Broadway, the trip ended abruptly when she had a nose bleed that wouldn't stop for days. She spent her 10th birthday in the hospital. "I remember at one time there were like up to four or five blood draws a day," said Lulu. Test after test finally revealed an autoimmune disease that kept her blood from clotting. Chemo and steroids pushed it into remission.

Lulu kept singing, winning a dozen competitions, until the worst was yet to come. At age 16 doctors found a blood clot in Lulu's brain and eventually diagnosed her with lupus, a rare disease without a cure. Her immune system attacks its own tissues and organs. A rupture in her kidney led to an emergency surgery where her lungs filled with blood, she received five blood transfusions and was in ICU for three weeks. Most notably for Lulu, she could not breathe on her own. "I remember thinking I don't know if I will ever be able to sing again," Lulu lamented.

During treatment, Lulu's doctors mentioned Make-A-Wish. Lulu dreamed of singing with an orchestra at a time that it was physically not possible. She had a wish to look forward to while she recovered. Slowly, over time, her voice came back. "Make-A-Wish motivated me to drag myself up onto my feet again and really try to push through," says Lulu. Four weeks of intense rehearsals brought her to the Bradley Symphony Center, to perform with her peers, the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.

"When you have a critical illness thinking of the future can be difficult. Make-A-Wish has given Lulu a broader view of what her life can be," said Marjorie. "The lupus will never go away, but she can live in it and live with it and know that she has a bright future ahead of her."