Make A Wish

“Here’s your presents! Here’s your pizza!”

Tate’s Make A Wish representative Carlos delivered Tate’s wish in December. Tate was a mess that day; he woke up really sick and his knee hurt so bad he could barely walk. Still, it was an incredible experience. Make a Wish is truly a wonderful organization, and they’re experts at visiting kids that don’t feel good.

So what was in all those boxes?!?! Tate loves playing a game called Magic The Gathering, and he requested some specific cards to add to his collection that are rare or out of his price range. (And since he’s 18 and unemployed, everything is out of his price range – ha.) Tate and Carlos worked together to find and order the cards online, so Tate thought he knew about everything he was getting. Turns out he was wrong about that! In true Make A Wish style, they loaded up the wagon with surprises beyond Tate’s wildest expectations. They gave him a backpack he can take to tournaments when the world re-opens, organizers for his cards, some cool dice, and Make A Wish stuff. MAW also contacted the Magic The Gathering corporate office, and they contributed lots of official swag including pajama bottoms, an insulated tumbler, a book, card sleeves, a wallet, and a few packs of cards. Magic The Gathering also gave Tate a few super special collectors items. It was surprise after surprise.

Greg and I watched him open everything, and to be honest, we really didn’t understand what most of it was. Ha ha ha. Tate was happy, and that’s all that matters.

I was caught unawares when a Make a Wish representative contacted me in February of last year. She was perfectly nice, extremely professional, and possibly the most understanding, patient person in the world. She was nothing but good. The thing is, it is very strange to get that call; it casts a new light on things. It might bring relief to some, but for me it was the realization that, wow, my kid is Make A Wish level sick. At first it made me really sad, but I didn’t stay that way. There is something so unique in the way they interacted with us: they were there to give Tate an extraordinary experience because he’s fighting cancer, and at the same time they talked to us like we were normal people. A lot of times I feel like people don’t know what to say to us or that there’s an underlying nervousness in some conversations, and there’s no judgement from me on this because I certainly don’t always know what to say either. Somehow the Make A Wish people do, that’s part of their magic.

Tate’s original wish was to play a cello solo with a professional symphony at a real performance somewhere. The MAW people loved his idea! They hadn’t worked on a wish like that before, but they seemed certain they could make it happen. After Tate lost the use of his hands for so long, performing on stage would have been a triumphant return to the life he has fought so hard to get back. This plays out so beautifully in my imagination; I can see him on that stage in his favorite suit, his body swaying as he plays his cello. Our family and friends pack the audience, and there’s not a dry eye in the house. What happened instead is that right after they started working on his wish, COVID broke out across the world and there have been no live performances since. They put Tate’s wish on hold for several months, but one day they called us and said they were unable to postpone it any longer and that he would have to choose something else. Tate was extremely disappointed at first; he had been practicing the piece he wanted to play for six months.

It worked out in the end, though. When forces beyond anyone’s control derailed Tate’s first choice, Make A Wish adjusted and went big a different direction. I will be forever grateful for the experience they gave Tate.