Passing the prayers on…

A classmate of David’s from St. Malo, has become a close family friend since Sébastien’s birth and has helped David and Jasmina during the ups and downs of Sébastien’s adventure. Her name is Roxanne. She too has a little boy, named Riley who is four. Last week, David, Jasmina and Sébastien received tickets to a Moose Game but as Sébastien’s sepsis made him more irritable, they decided to give the tickets to Roxanne. As you’ll see, the outcome was a lovely surprise:

Tell them…”I’ll pray for them….”

Amazing words that struck me.

I thought tonight would be one of those nights… you know, do the laundry, tidy the house and get ready for the weekend. I knew Dave and Jasmina would be getting ready to leave next week to return to Toronto with Sébastien to get ready for the next step of Sébastien’s journey. I wanted them to come over again before they left since I wasn’t sure when we’d see them again. I checked my phone and saw that Dave had tried to call. I called back. After spending the whole day in the hospital, Dave, Jasmina and especially Sébastien were exhausted. Sébastien had a sore belly and a headache Jasmina explained. “Sébastien, do you have a headache?” she asked. “Yep” Sébastien answered. Dave explained that they had been offered tickets to the Manitoba Moose game for tonight. Drew MacIntyre, the goalie from the Moose had graciously bought tickets for kids from Children’s Hospital here in Winnipeg and that after the game, we would get a chance to meet him. Of course we’ll go I said and so we stopped by and picked up the information and gave our hugs and away we went.

Riley, my son was so excited. He kept saying that he was going to see on Hockey Night in Canada. “Sort of.” I explained. I called up a good friend of mine, Myranda to see if she wanted to bring her son Carter and accompany me to the hockey game. It just so happened that it was Carter’s birthday.

Riley and I grabbed a few things and raced to the MTS Centre just in time to see the first puck drop. A goal here and a goal there and all of a sudden the game was over and the Moose had won the game. Both 4 year old boys could barely hold their little Moose flags up in the air. Both dragged their flags up to the Guest Services booth where we were met by Kelly McArthur. Kelly is the Director of Community Partnerships & Manitoba Moose Yearling Foundation. She explained that part of Drew’s wish was to get the kids to the games but also meet the kids that he was inviting. She told our boys just how lucky they were to be going past the doors we were going through. “Not too many people get to come back here boys” she said. Along our journey to the locker room, Kelly and I discussed Sébastien and how I had ended up representing the family at tonight’s game.

We stood on a platform in front of two big doors with a Manitoba Moose decal. A few moments later, a player walked out. It was Drew. He was still glowing from winning the game. I explained the victorious journey Sébastien had made so far and where his next steps would take him and his family. My son presented him with one of the Hope for Sébastien T-Shirts. Jasmina had wanted so much that we offer him this gift to thank him for the wonderful gift he was making not only to Sébastien but for all future kids from the Children’s Hospital. He thanked us for the t-shirt. Then to all our surprise, he took my son’s hand and his friend’s hand and walked them into the Moose locker room. My girlfriend and I could only look at each other as we waited for our boys to come back out with grins from ear to ear. Out came the boys with a poster. After a brief autograph on both the posters and the flags, we thanked him and shook hands. He briefly looked back at his T-shirt with Sébastien’s picture on the front. “Tell them I’ll pray for them.” He said. Here I was holding my son by the hand standing in front of a man who had just played an amazing hockey game who was taking the time to meet with us. Tears filled the corner of my eyes. I wish Sébastien could have been there. I could feel Jasmina with me and I could feel her say the words that came out of my mouth…. “thank you, I’ll pass that on.” Away he went. As we turned to go, Riley spotted the two Zambonies parked about 50 feet away from us. Being a Zamboni fanatic, he begged me to go closer. Kelly advised that this would be OK but we needed to stand back since the operators were not near the machines. Then out of the sidelines came one of the operators. After a brief introduction, he offered to back up the Zamboni for us to take pictures. Back it came and then the kids got to sit on it. “Hey moms, can I take them out for a ride?” asked the operator. With two sets of pleading eyes, there was not way we could say no.

Off they went each their turns for a spin around the ice rink on a Zamboni, honking the horn and dumping the snow upon returning the monstrous machine to its parking spot. As I took a short video with my camera, tears streamed down my checks. In the span of a minute, I saw a million images flash before me; how did I get here, right now… I saw Sébastien in intensive care, clinging to life over a year ago as we sang lullabies through the night, having a Thai dinner in Sébastien’s hospital room at Children’s, the call I got from Dave the day they got the call for the life saving transplant, the day Riley stepped on a jumbo jet for the first time to fly to Toronto to see his friend Sébastien for the first time after the transplant, the friendship made with Jasmina and Dave and a friend my son made to Sébastien who he still thinks is an angel, and here I was tonight.

I had received the gift of my 4 year old’s smile that I could not have created without the tremendous generosity of Dave and Jasmina. Without the tremendous generosity of perfect strangers, Drew and Kelly and the MB Moose. How can I ever thank all the people involved in this short video of happiness I was taping at this moment….?

As I drove home, it was nearly 11 p.m. As we stopped at a red light, I look in my rear view mirror. Riley mumbles, “That man Drew was sooooo nice, Maman.” then says, “We’ll have to give hugs to Sébastien…”. His little head slowly rolls to one side and he’s fast asleep. How can I thank everyone for making my son so happy? My mind wanders to the short phrase Drew said when we parted. “Tell them, I’ll pray for them. “Dear God”, I whispered as I started driving, “tonight, I pray for everyone who made us so happy and that one day I can repay the gift.”