Jalene Salinas may have succumbed to her cancer but not before completing her bucket list, which included shaking it off with Taylor Swift. After finding out the little Swiftie has gone to heaven, the singer sent Jalene's family flowers.
At three years old, Jalene was diagnosed with brain cancer. With her condition terminal, the little girl had a bucket list. She wanted to see sand, make a snowman, visit Disney World and, as a Swiftie, meet Taylor. Friends, family and strangers made the meeting with the "Shake It Off" singer happen by making #ShakeItOffJalene viral on Twitter. Taylor caught wind of the campaign and surprised Jalene last March 2 with a 20-minute session on FaceTime.
Jalene actually just had a rough weekend at the time, waking up unable to walk and generally unwell to attend a special benefit for her. But Taylor turned all of that around when she made a surprise FaceTime call to the family.
"I'm so sorry you're having a bad night, I'm so happy to talk to you though and I'm so happy you like Shake It off. You look beautiful tonight, you really do. You're just as pretty as your pictures," said Taylor.
Jalene was in pain so she wasn't able to talk much but she lit up telling Taylor about her baby brother.
Jennifer Arriagas thanked Taylor after her little girl met her idol, telling the singer it meant so much to the family that she reached out and completed Jalene's bucket list.
Unfortunately, sad news was not far away.
In Jennifer's words, Jalene gained her beautiful angel wings on Mar. 15.
"She fought all the way to the end. She beat cancer defying the hours and days we were told," Jennifer wrote in a Facebook post on Jalene's Journey, a community page dedicated to her daughter.
A few days later, Taylor sent Jalene's family a vase of flowers. On the card it read: "All my love, Taylor."
Jalene was diagnosed with primitive neuroectodermal tumor. PNET is a name used to refer to tumors that appear identical to medulloblastoma, when viewed under the microscope, but mainly occur in the cerebrum. Highly malignant, the brain tumors can spread to the spine and other parts of the brain. They often contain dead tumor cells and cysts and also have the tendency to be large, causing pressure to build up in the brain.
