Remembering Jordyn Landau, 24

Oceanside’s Jordyn Landau didn’t want to be known as “Jordyn who has cancer,” she wanted people to see her for who she is — family-centered, courageous, strong, optimistic and a warrior — to name a few, family members said.

An aunt to Cameron, sister to Josh and Heather, daughter to Aimee and Rick Landau, and a caring educator in the Hewlett-Woodmere school district, Landau died on Jan. 16, 2024 of Ewing’s Sarcoma, a form of cancer. She was 24.

A lifelong Oceanside resident, Landau was born on Feb. 11, 1999. Her early years began in the preschool program at the Friedberg JCC. She attended schools in the Oceanside school district through high school.

On the high school’s track and field team, she broke a school shot put record.

“If you ever enter its athletic hall of fame, Jordyn’s picture is hanging,” Aimee said, referring to Oceanside High.

After high school, she attended the University of Delaware, majoring in human services with a clinical studies concentration and a minor in psychology.

Her time in college was met with many opportunities within the field, but also outside the country. Landau studied in South Africa, where she volunteered at a school for children with special needs, went on safari and cared for young children at an orphanage.

“My daughter was just a very caring, wonderful person,” Rick said. “Always tried to do things for others and loved children. Her love for them was just unbelievable.”

During her senior year, her mother described it as a “gut-punch to all of us” when she was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in October 2020, a rare tumor that forms in and around bone and soft tissue, affecting a little over 200 people annually nationwide.

Jordyn would go through treatments on and off and would frequently document her journey on social media. One that she was most proud of was encouraging over 50 people she knew to donate and document themselves donating blood and platelets if they were healthy. During her treatments, she would need over 150 blood transfusions.

“She was a fierce advocate of people donating blood and platelets,” Aimee said. “She asked them to take pictures of them donating and made a collage of everybody at the donation centers.”

She was hired as a reading teaching assistant at the Franklin Early Childhood Center in Hewlett in January 2022 after initially wanting to be a social worker. Her mother said it was a job that she loved and one that saved her because after completing her first full year, she applied to Molloy University to pursue a master’s degree in elementary education and teaching.

“It kind of reaffirmed her faith and what’s right in the world,” Aimee said. “The staff there took her under their wing and was part of their family, the Franklin family.”

Last October, Jordyn rang the bell, which signified she was done with treatments, only to be re-diagnosed weeks later. The Franklin family, specifically the students, made it known that the impact she left on them wasn’t forgotten.

“The kids would send monthly card packages to her from all of the classrooms that she was missed and loved,” Aimee said. “They were tremendous.”

To honor Jordyn’s life, the family is requesting donations to GiveButter.com/jordynlandau to help support the Little Warrior Foundation to uncover a cure for Ewing Sarcoma.