Friday is hands down our busiest day. I am always in a rush and, when I got to work early Friday morning, I saw an e-mail asking if we had a case of gumballs in stock. I responded yes, hit the send button, then actually read the e-mail. I’m not ashamed to say that it brought tears to my eyes. See, I was contacted to help make a wish come true. Carter Kettner is a five-year old boy from Huntley, IL. He was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in February. The folks at Make A Wish Foundation met with Carter’s family so they could make his remaining months the best. When asked what wish he would like to see come true, he said “I want it to rain gumballs, and for there to be no real food in the world, just candy.” So when his aunt contacted us, I called her and offered to have them come into the store for a tour of our kitchens and basically anything else they possibly wanted, as well as to facilitate the gumball downpour. She declined since Carter was returning that day from treatment and would be exhausted.
We gave them all of the 8,000+ mini gumballs that we had in the store. A family member picked them up that afternoon and was extremely thankful. After the family member left, I couldn’t help but be amazed. Here I was on a busy Friday, worried about all sorts of things, then something like this happens. A random relative drops everything to drive an hour and a half to pick up gumballs, just to provide a magical few minutes for a very sick child. It really put things in perspective. When I got home Friday night, I hugged our son so tight for so long. It reminded me just how lucky we are to have what we have and what truly matters.
But enough writing. I don’t want to be a downer. This is about what a simple act of kindness can do to bring joy to a sick child. See the video and pictures taken when Carter got ‘rained’ on. After all, a picture is worth 8000+ gumballs.