Back in 2020, shortly after Halle's second relapse with Ewings Sarcoma, Halle had to have surgery up at the Cleveland Clinic. I distinctly remember my wife and I piling into my parents Ford Expedition with my grandparents and driving up to Cleveland in the frigid Ohio winter to be at the hospital as a family while we waited for Halle’s surgery to be completed.
Most of the time we spent during our visit was either in the waiting room or in the lobby, waiting for an update on how the surgery went. I distinctly remember spending a large portion of the waiting period in the lobby copying down an array of inspiring quotes displayed vertically in a piece of artwork in the lobby of the Cleveland Clinic.
At one point, when the nurse came to update us that the surgery had gone well, she mentioned how she had never seen this many people in the waiting room for one patient.
Moments like this often remind me that the closeness that I have always had with my family shouldn't be taken for granted. I think about all the times where even as a child, going up to Akron Children's Hospital as a family to visit Halle with a tub of Batman figurines and our imagintations running wild, never once considering that it could be rare for other families of patients may not have the same kind of support system around them. Having a community around you can truly make all the difference in the best of times.
A few months back, as a way to further the serve the families staying in the furnished apartments that Share Your Story provides, the foundation put together a sort of summer picnic for the families staying in our apartments. As a board member, it was first opportunity to get to meet the families we serve as a foundation. It was an incredibly gratifying experience, but what struck me unexpectedly was seeing the families getting the opportunity to interact with one another.
So many times when dealing with sickness and treatment, its easy to feel isolated from the rest of the world. Having a community around you during a tough time is not always easy. It can be overlooked by the need for basic necessities, but it’s so vitally important in the grand scheme of things.
For myself -- getting to interact with the families we serve for the first time -- it was an unexpected blessing. Our goal as a foundation is to serve families who are in need, and seeing just how big of an impact we can have on families going through hardship makes all of the things we do worth it. It’s truly the little things like community that can make all the difference.
