Memories are cool things aren’t they?
Things that make you smile when you think about them…things that make
you warm and fuzzy inside…and things that can cause you to burst out laughing
for seemingly no apparent reason. I’ve
definitely had a lot of those kinds of memories J I would love to be able to share some of those
with you. So…I’ve decided to institute “Memory
Monday.” Not that this will happen EVERY
single Monday…but on Mondays once and a while I will do my best to share a
special memory with all of you my dear blog readers.
Today on our first installment of “Memory Monday,” I want to share a
special memory I have about a purple dinosaur and a young boy’s lifelong dream
to meet said dinosaur. Ok, you know in
your mind who this purple dino is, right?
Yup, good ‘ole Barney. I grew up
as a kid watching the TV show Barney because it was both of my younger sisters’
favorite TV show. I knew all the songs
and dances, and could recite them by memory because frankly when you have two
sisters who are four years apart, you pretty much go through about 6-7 years of
Barney non-stop. Not complaining at all…just
stating a fact.
Who knew that all this Barney knowledge would come in handy as a
teenager?! Yes…I said a teenager. Now don’t go thinking I had a mid-teen crisis
and suddenly became an avid Barney watcher…I didn’t. Here’s the story…
My junior year of high school, while living in Birmingham, Alabama, the
pastor’s wife of my church, Traci, told me about a very sick boy whose life-long
wish was to meet Barney the Dinosaur. This
boy had severe cystic fibrosis, mental challenges (which made him talk and act
like a young child), and he had recently had surgery. It was going to be his fourteenth birthday
and his family didn’t think that he would make it to his next birthday so they asked
Traci if she could help them fulfill his wish.
Traci was able to get one of the real-life Barney costumes donated for
this special surprise. The costume was very
similar to the one on the actual television show...not the cheap Halloween-looking ones. All she needed was someone to bring Barney to
life. She asked me if I would be
interested and of course after I heard his story, I most definitely was!
I was so excited, I went out and bought a Barney CD that I could play
for him. I also planned to do the
motions to many of the songs I knew from those days of watching the show as a
loving and dear sister in those early childhood years J
So one day after school, Traci and I made our way to Children’s
Hospital in Birmingham. When we got to
the parking garage, she unloaded the costume and began putting it on me. We figured it was best to do it this way so
as not to traumatize other kids we would pass if we had walked through the hospital
with the costume in our hands.
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| Do I make a convincing Barney? :) |
I will never forget walking through the hospital in the Barney costume
to get to this boy’s room. The gasps and
happy screams of so many kids filled the hallways and there were times that
parents had to pry their kids off my tail so I could walk J There were literally 5 children on me at one point...two around my legs, two on my tail and one by the hand! “Barney!
I love you” was a sweet phrase I heard as I passed many of the kids,
most especially the preschool aged ones.
We were soon ushered by one of the hospital staff into the area where
this precious boy was staying. There was
a small, black-mesh partition in the costume which allowed me to see everything
around me. As I entered the room, the
boy’s mother said, “Sweetheart, look who is here to see you!” I watched the boy turn his head and when he realized who
was at the door, his fragile body began to tremble uncontrollably. “Baney!” he said, his alert eyes
glowing. Traci turned on the Barney CD I
brought, and as I danced along to the words of the songs, his face began to light
up. I ended my performance with the
popular song “I Love You” and when the song ended, this sweet boy reached out
for my hand.
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| Holding the sweet boy's hand |
As I held his weak hand, he said to me “Baney, I can’t believe you came
all this way to see me. Tank you Baney.” Those thirty, joyous minutes went by so fast. I wished I could've stayed longer. We said goodbye and as I turned and left the
room; I knew his family felt blessed, just as I was, to see him smile and laugh
because he had not done these things in a long time. I went home that night so humbled and
thankful for the opportunity to be a part of making this sweet boy’s dream come
true.
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What a sweet, sweet memory I have of that experience! You never know what kind of opportunities
will come your way for you to brighten up someone’s day. The Bible says to “encourage one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) and that encouragement
could come in the form of ANYTHING! It
could be something simple like speaking encouraging words or a giving someone a
vase of flowers. I could be something
you do like an act of service. It could even
be through dressing up as a purple dinosaur!
You never know! J
God works in mysterious ways!!! J
