Elk Grove resident Belinda Tillson DeLeon always wanted to be a nurse, from the time she was a little girl in Guatemala watching her grandma care for others.

After arriving in the U.S., Belinda studied and learned English. She completed her college prerequisites, all while she and husband Daniel Tillson Rodriguez raised two young girls, one with autism.

Belinda was finally accepted into a nursing program, but her dream was nearly cut short when she suffered a ruptured aneurysm.

The ensuing emergency procedure left her partially paralyzed in the hospital ICU. That’s where Belinda and Daniel picked up the story during their StoryCorps interview in October.