Delaware Ronald McDonald House helps family share story of resilience

Every picture tells a story.

"Every time we come, we need a picture with Ronald," Khrystyna Turpin said.

Turpin is staying at the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware with her son, Myles Bunting. Each photo taken tells bits and pieces of the 5-year-old's biography.

"We actually started doing something called 'Life with Ronald,'" Turpin said.

The Laurel boy first came to the Wilmington house in 2021. In the last 5 years, the family has stayed at least once a month.

"The journey itself is never the same. It's not the same day to day," Turpin said. "It's not the same year to year. What we do monthly changes."

Myles lives with mitochondrial complex V deficiency, a rare genetic disorder. The family's story with the Delaware house actually starts before Myles was born.

His older sister, Kinsley, is the reason the family started coming to the house.

"Our first official stay was in 2017. Kinsley had something called hydronephrosis," Turpin said. "She had a UPJ surgery, which landed us here."

Nearly a decade of writing their stories here, Turpin wants anyone who walks through the doors to know, "It's not just about the child that's on the journey."

"They incorporate the entire family," Turpin said. "There's not a single person in your family that is not checked on, or that is left out."