A special day for Gretchen
Magic isn't like a cold; you want to catch it. That special spark we call magic removed the gloom of Sutter Memorial Hospital's pediatric unit on Sunday. From a chance encounter between "Snickers" the clown and ponytailed Gretchen, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, a roomful of children and parents laughed.
The scenewas a Christmas party among about 20 youngsters. Many of the kids came suffering from asthma, pneumonia, leukemia, muscular dystrophy, and Gretchen's ailment, a sickness that clogs her young lungs with mucus. and then, Gretchen met the clown.
"I heard there were a whole bunch of magical kids at this hospital," said Snickers, his eyes wide and his voice turned up to a carefree pitch. He haduttered a prophecy.
Like his fairy princess, Snickers wanted Gretchen to wave a magic wand to find an apple that had disappeared from his hands. She clutched it with anticipation and in a flash, the wand collapsed in her hand and dangled like a rope. A splash of laughter quickly covered the room. It made the parents' load lighter, it made the kids' day brighter.
This hospital room is not always a happy place. "There are setbacks" confessed katie Gordon, the hospital's child life coordinator. "Sometimes the kids get discouraged if they can't go home with they were suppoosed to."
Their gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments represent words too long for these kids, but they understand the suffering, the fear before surgery, missing their parents, fighting off the infections they get, said Gordoon.
"There used to be a time when a child like Gretchen wouldn't live past the first year," Gordon said. Thanks to better medicine, Gretchen is 4. And thanks to Snickers, his assistant "Shoes," the hospital staff and the Make-A-Wish Foundation that co-sponsored Sunday's party, suffering kids clebrated the season for a while.
In one corner, a forelorn child stared aimlessly in his mother's lap until on of Sinickers' jokes made Mom shake with laughter. Mom seemed to shake joy into her son.
Along one wall, 6-week old Andrew Johnson who had undergone a minor stomach operation snoozed peacefully through the performance. Bud dad Dave managed a smile. Suddenly, Snickers hed up a tiny black box inwhich he made a colorful Rubik's cube disappear.
Where could it be?
Once again, it was Gretchen's chance to wave the wand. Shoes held a crumpled paper bag at her side and moved up to where Gretchen soon would catch er magic. They all repeated the charm: "Abracadabra." Gretchen feverishly waved her wand.
Volla! Shoes pulled the phantom cube out of her bag! IN honest surprise, Gretchen screamed with laughter and jumped up on her toes until her ponytails bounced.
A moment later, a husky Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy came over and handed her a white teddy bear and a wrapped present. Gretchen tore off the paper, poked through the plastic wrapper and ripped open a tory carousel.
"I got it," she exclaimed.
She had caught the magic. She had forgotten her illness. Snickers was right.
Article by Jim Szymanski: Sacramento Union
Magic isn't like a cold; you want to catch it. That special spark we call magic removed the gloom of Sutter Memorial Hospital's pediatric unit on Sunday. From a chance encounter between "Snickers" the clown and ponytailed Gretchen, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, a roomful of children and parents laughed.
The scenewas a Christmas party among about 20 youngsters. Many of the kids came suffering from asthma, pneumonia, leukemia, muscular dystrophy, and Gretchen's ailment, a sickness that clogs her young lungs with mucus. and then, Gretchen met the clown.
"I heard there were a whole bunch of magical kids at this hospital," said Snickers, his eyes wide and his voice turned up to a carefree pitch. He haduttered a prophecy.
Like his fairy princess, Snickers wanted Gretchen to wave a magic wand to find an apple that had disappeared from his hands. She clutched it with anticipation and in a flash, the wand collapsed in her hand and dangled like a rope. A splash of laughter quickly covered the room. It made the parents' load lighter, it made the kids' day brighter.
This hospital room is not always a happy place. "There are setbacks" confessed katie Gordon, the hospital's child life coordinator. "Sometimes the kids get discouraged if they can't go home with they were suppoosed to."
Their gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments represent words too long for these kids, but they understand the suffering, the fear before surgery, missing their parents, fighting off the infections they get, said Gordoon.
"There used to be a time when a child like Gretchen wouldn't live past the first year," Gordon said. Thanks to better medicine, Gretchen is 4. And thanks to Snickers, his assistant "Shoes," the hospital staff and the Make-A-Wish Foundation that co-sponsored Sunday's party, suffering kids clebrated the season for a while.
In one corner, a forelorn child stared aimlessly in his mother's lap until on of Sinickers' jokes made Mom shake with laughter. Mom seemed to shake joy into her son.
Along one wall, 6-week old Andrew Johnson who had undergone a minor stomach operation snoozed peacefully through the performance. Bud dad Dave managed a smile. Suddenly, Snickers hed up a tiny black box inwhich he made a colorful Rubik's cube disappear.
Where could it be?
Once again, it was Gretchen's chance to wave the wand. Shoes held a crumpled paper bag at her side and moved up to where Gretchen soon would catch er magic. They all repeated the charm: "Abracadabra." Gretchen feverishly waved her wand.
Volla! Shoes pulled the phantom cube out of her bag! IN honest surprise, Gretchen screamed with laughter and jumped up on her toes until her ponytails bounced.
A moment later, a husky Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy came over and handed her a white teddy bear and a wrapped present. Gretchen tore off the paper, poked through the plastic wrapper and ripped open a tory carousel.
"I got it," she exclaimed.
She had caught the magic. She had forgotten her illness. Snickers was right.
Article by Jim Szymanski: Sacramento Union
posted by The Gretch at 3:44 PM
0 comments
