Feature Story

What Love really means
Everyone has a wish. Everyone has a dream. Everyone would give anything to have their dream come true. Yet some kids are getting everything taken from them before they can even live long enough to have this dream become true. One special foundation is doing all they can to make sure that every child can have their biggest dreams come true. With the mission statement of “We grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.” The Make a Wish foundation affects so many young kids who have been through life threatening injuries or who have terminal diseases. My cousin Joe is one of the thousands of kids who got his wish granted.
In the spring of 2009 my cousin Joe was just an average Junior at East Marshall High School in Marshalltown Iowa. He went to school one morning like he always does. He had a normal day at school. After he drove over to his moms work to get some money. Then he went back to school to decorate for prom. Like all juniors he was so excited to go to prom he talked about it all the time. So decorating was very exciting for him. He and his friend Miles decided they would take a little break from decorating to play a quick game of basketball. He went up for a layup and he collapsed…Luckily his friends knew CPR so they began doing that right away, while another one of his friends called 911. The paramedics showed up right away and took him to a hospital in Marshalltown. They did as much as they could in Marshalltown but the doctors knew there was nothing else they could do. The doctors said that the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota will be able to help Joe. So that night he was airlifted in a helicopter to Rochester.
I still remember that night. My parents and I were watching TV when the phone rang. My mom answered and was on the phone for a long time. I became very concerned when I heard the sound of my mom’s voice. She sounded so sad and scared. When she got off the phone she told me that “Joe had an accident.” A million things ran through my mind. Especially the last time I saw him. It was thanksgiving at my Grandparents house. Our whole family was there. Joe was being...well Joe. He is the kind of person who is always hyper, happy, and smiling. Nothing stops him from being happy. And well that can get annoying when you have someone around you constantly being crazy. My family does get a little annoyed with Joe but of course we all love him. Whenever we go to Iowa to visit my family Joe is always the first one to run up and say “Hi Meg I love you!” with his big smile on his face and give me a huge hug. This memory was all I could think of; Joe running up and hugging me. Then I thought of when he texted me a couple weeks ago saying that he just saw the Hannah Montana movie and loved it so much! Joe and I love Hannah Montana. But after thinking about all of this I realized I have never made Joe a huge part of my life. He was just my cousin who I saw at holidays. When we were little we would play together all the time but now it was like we didn’t even try to be close. This made me realize how much I really did love him, and needed to show him that.
When he arrived to Rochester he was still unconscious. He was rushed to intensive care. His heart stopped 6 more times that night. My aunt Lannette says she can remember the horrible sound of the machines and the doctors “pounding” on Joe’s chest to save him. The next day after we got the phone call I was so scared that I was going to lose Joe. My mom texted me during the day saying she was leaving work early to go to Rochester. I begged her to let me come to but in the end we decided I should stay in school the rest of the day and I would go on the weekend.
The weekend came and my mom and I made the hour drive to Rochester. Little did I know this trip would become so familiar. When we got there the first person we saw was my Grandpa. He was sitting outside the hospital on a little stool he carries around. Never have I seen my Grandpa so scared in my life. He told us he couldn’t handle being in Joe’s room anymore. Once again I had no idea what would be in store when we walked into his room. So we took my grandpa up to the room with us. Floor 5 first set of doors on the right. Intensive care. We went through 2 sets of big heavy doors. When we walked through the second set of doors I saw Lannette, my grandma and my cousin Courtaney. We were now all outside a room. “do you want to see Joe?” they asked. “yes.” We went in...Word could never describe how I felt seeing him. All i could think of was thanksgiving. Joe jumping up and down being so crazy and now he was lying in a hospital bed. Tubes in his throat and chest. I had never seen so many tubes and machines in my life. Lannette went over and took his hand and said “Joe, Meghan and Lorrie came to see you.” No response. The doctors began to take him off the medicine to kind of wake him up. “Go ahead and say hi to him.” My grandma talked to him, Court talked to him. We all did. I went over and took his head and through teary eyes i said. “Joe I love you.” The words he has said to me so many times. His eyes slowly open. he tries to squeeze my hand, and despite all the tubes in his throat and all he has been through so far his lips move. Slowly trying to say “I love you to.” By this point we are all in tears. I have never seen my Grandparents cry before. Now I know why my Grandpa couldn’t stand being in this room. But at this point in time it was so filled with love; I didn’t want to leave Joe.
I stayed at the hospital that night. The one thing that amazed me was how even though this horrible thing was going on my aunt was still her goofy, loving, silly self. Obviously she was scared to death that she was going to lose he son but she was thinking positive. Joe was in intensive care for weeks, and every weekend my mom and I would make that hour trip to Rochester. Sometimes we would go after school for a few hours. And on our trips back we began to see this place we later started calling “the city of lights”. At night it was this place that was so light up and pretty it looked like a million little twinkling lights. We decided when Joe got out of the hospital we would take him there so we could find out what it was. While Joe was in intensive care he had surgeries on his legs because they were not getting good blood circulation. The doctors had to cut on both sides of his legs and remove dead muscle. They didn’t know if he would be able to fully walk again. Joe just said “you’ll see, I’m going to walk out of here.” Finally Joe was out of intensive care. One day when we came to visit him I told him I learned the hoedown throw down dance from Hannah Montana the Movie. He said “DO IT!” so we had a little concert in his hospital room. Everyone was laughing so hard. And after the Hoedown throw down I sang the Climb to my mom grandma, Lannette, court and Joe. They all say I look like Miley so I was getting really into the song and dancing when a nurse walked in. We all laughed even more. This is why I was always excited to go see Joe. When most people think of visiting someone in the hospital they think of sitting around a bed quietly talking. That never happened here. We danced, sang, laughed, watched movies, ate, and goofed around.
In October, two months after Joe got out of the hospital, Joe, My Aunt my cousin Courtnay, my mom, our Grandma and I had a week together that we will never forget thanks to Make a Wish. It started on the plan ride to Florida. “Can I sit by the window?” was the first thing out of Joe’s mouth on the airplane. We laughed and goofed around the whole ride there. Joe was amazed by the air plane. This was his second time flying but now he will actually remember it. We got to the resort we would be staying at for the week called Give Kids the World. It is a resort set up by Make a Wish. Joe and I took some time to explore the village. It was great, a swimming pool, face painting; all you can eat ice cream (our favorite part) and so much more. The one thing I will always remember about this place is all the kids there. Despite their disabilities or diseases they were all so happy. They were smiling, laughing, having fun, and just being kids. That’s what Make a Wish is for. To let kids be kids. That week in Florida changed my life. Well Joe changed my life. He made me realize just how precious every second of our lives are. Each and every Make a Wish kid there was enjoying each second of their life, and their families were happy to. That’s what life is about, being happy. The Make a Wish foundation changes children’s lives by letting them just have fun.
“I love you Joe.” I have said that more times then I can count. The simple squeeze of his hand that day at the hospital taught me the true meaning of love. He has changed my life so much we have become so close. I would have never thought this whole accident with would change my life for the better. But it did, and i am so thankful to still have Joe and to have had so many good memories from our trip to Florida. Joe and i will always be so close with each other. I love you Joe.