"The one story I wrote about several times in college is this one, due to how I would play with the medically challenged kids without obvious outward emotion(s) coming from the character (usually Pluto), one day a boy requested Pluto. Just like other terminally ill kids would request other characters as their wish. The boy was from Canada and terminal. Against his specialists wishes they made the trip to Orlando. He was young 12-14ish, I forget now. If my memory holds correctly, he had cancer and it had pretty much taken over his body. Every breath could be his last. After arriving at the Magic Kingdom, he could not do much due to being tired/drained, etc. His parents asked if our meeting could be moved up so he could go back to the hotel to rest. My lead and sups arranged for them to go back to their hotel (Contemp, Poly, etc) and that Pluto would come see him there.
I became a worry wart after finding out he had gone back to his hotel. The special lead and I got in the van and drove to the resort for the meet and greet. Back then, in room meet and greets were sorta verboten, but this boy could not really get out to come down stairs to an empty ballroom.We eventually decided to screw it and with his parent's permission we came up to their room. The boy who had been resting in the bed got up the strength to get out of bed enough to sit on the floor and roll a ball to Pluto. Without a moment to think, I got on all fours and using my nose (a tad akwardly (sp?)) rolled/pushed the ball back to him. He lit up and laughed and had his parents look at what Pluto did. One of the parents explained how he wanted a puppy, but he is allergic to dogs. I was this boy's pet for a while, then he told me to sit. I did, like a dog, then he told me it was ok to sit indian style (yeah kid, I wish, do you know how thick this fur suit is???) Pluto sat in what appeared to be indian style enough for him. For the next 35 minutes all we did was roll a ball back and forth. He started to fade and wanted to take a nap. I felt horrible because he was laughing and having a blast. He had rubbed Pluto's tummy a few times, and got Pluto licks from that slick red plastic tongue. After he got under his covers, Pluto got up on the bed and laid at the foot of the bed the best that he could. His parents told him to rest and turned off the lights.
My lead of course was no more then a couple feet away watching the whole thing and never loosing sight of us. The boy feel asleep very quickly. Pluto got up, left him an autograph and a special gift. Pluto and lead then left. Lead was crying, mom and dad were crying, and yes, I was crying. Mom and dad wanted to personally thank the person inside Pluto. My lead tried to give the party line, but I went up and gave them a hug.
Two days later over breakfast, I read how the boy died on the way home clutching the gift that Pluto gave him. His mother said in the article that the boy died talking about how Pluto was his pet and that all he talked about was how he and Pluto played ball like he always wanted to with a doggie."
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