Meet the Brandt sisters and the story behind their mom's tattoo

EAGLE LAKE, Florida – The tattoo on Elysia Camp’s right bicep catches your eye.

It’s hexagons, lines, letters – a chemical compound, though this one includes four flowers.

Those seeing it for the first time offer a guess. Caffeine? Adrenaline? No, but nice tries, especially since Elysia was a single mother of three girls and could have used plenty of both when she got the tattoo in February 2022.

It’s cortisol, a hormone that affects many of the body’s vital functions.

And if there is time, Elysia explains the why behind the tattoo.

Cortisol is the main hormone that Leonora Brandt, her middle daughter, lacks. And it’s that lack of cortisol that unites the family that now includes Elysia’s husband, Chris Philip.

“A reminder,” Elysia said, “that we’re in this together.”

There are other reminders.

Leonora, 13, was born with panhypopituitarism – she does not have a pituitary gland. It’s a life-threatening condition controlled daily by medication. She also has a bicuspid aortic valve, a submucous cleft palate, Chiari malformation (where the lower part of the brain pushes down into the spinal canal), and sensorineural hearing loss.

She also has a smile that she wears often, a love of learning, deep faith, and a giving heart. In 2021 and 2022, Leonora had a lemonade stand that raised almost $5,000 to buy toys for children at a local hospital during Christmas.

She has a fiercely protective older sister, Lydia Brandt, 15, and a younger sister, London Brandt, 10, who keeps the entire family loose with her quirky sense of humor.

The girls receive Florida education choice scholarships managed by Step Up For Students. They are home-educated, which is a perfect option since they each spend three days a week moving from doctor visits, therapies, and counseling.

Schoolwork is completed in waiting rooms, the family minivan, and inside their home in the Polk County town of Eagle Lake.

“It’s anywhere school,” Elysia said.

They have to be, because the appointments aren’t just limited to Leonora.

Lydia was 10 when doctors discovered the aches she suffered from taking ballet were not growing pains. She has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes her joints to easily dislocate. It also impacts her heart and blood vessels.

London was recently diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and sensory processing disorder (SPD).

“It’s so cliché, but this is our new normal,” Elysia said. “When something new comes up, we say, ‘OK, new normal. Time to shift.’”

Between them, the girls see 10 therapists a week.

“This is all we’ve really known,” Leonora added. “So, we’ve just gotten into the groove of what we do on a normal basis.”

The flowers on Elysia’s tattoos represent her daughters’ birth months – a chrysanthemum for Leonora, a daisy for Lydia, a cosmos for London, and a rose for herself.

“It's a great conversation starter,” Elysia said. “People have really enjoyed hearing the story behind it. It’s an unexpected way to bring awareness.”

Several years ago, the church the family attends adopted them for Christmas. Elysia declined at first but eventually agreed.

“I was just going to let the blessings happen,” she said.

Members of the congregation were surprised when Lydia asked for bottled water, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and backpacks. She was going to turn one blessing into another – gifts for the homeless.

“It might be just what they need to get through the night,” Lydia said. “I wish I could give so much more.”

Following that lead, London asked for jars of peanut butter for her last two birthdays and donated them to a drive to feed homeless children.

“They live in chronic pain, all three of them, but their hearts are for people who are less fortunate,” Elysia said. “They realize how blessed we are and how much we have and how grateful we are to be where we're at and have the resources that we do, because there are people who don't have those resources at all, and they are very aware of that.”

Leonora said it might be time to revive the lemonade stand, because there is no shortage of kids who have to spend Christmas in the hospital.

“I constantly go to the hospital because I’m sick or for surgery, so I know what those kids are going through,” she said. “So, I want to raise money to get them toys, so they have something to do while they’re waiting to go home or whatever.”

On the front door of the house is a wooden sign that says, “Home.”

It’s a big word in that household.

“It’s our safe place,” Lydia said. “It helps us recharge. It gives us hope and strength and encourages us to keep fighting.”

It’s where they celebrate their victories, big and small, although with what the girls battle daily, there are no small victories.

Leonora had a gastrostomy tube when she was an infant, and doctors believed she might never be able to eat on her own. It was a big occasion when that was removed.

Lydia excelled in ballet. She dreamed of being a Sugar Plum Fairy in “The Nutcracker.” Then her knee popped out of joint during one class. She might never dance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, but she is doing well in physical therapy. Another win.

“They might look like anthills to some people. To us, they look like mountains,” Elysia said. “And it doesn't matter whether it is an anthill or a mountain, we're going to celebrate them.”

Their education? Another victory since they found a scholarship that allows Elysia to tailor the curriculum to each of her daughters’ interests and schedules. A brick-and-mortar setting would not work with the amount of time the girls would miss because of their medical appointments.

On a recent Friday afternoon, Elysia and her girls climbed into the minivan and headed to the library, where they would continue a seemingly never-ending game of Dungeons and Dragons with their friends.

As they drove away from the house, Lydia took out her notebook and worked on a lesson for her Latin class.

“That’s the beauty of the scholarship,” Elysia said. “They bring school with them.”

Roger Mooney, manager, communications, can be reached at [email protected].