Renee Oelrich

Periodically, I wear a costume to the hospital or a home of a child that has been ill for some time. I do this on my own time to bring an emotional balance to my hard lived life. The face of a child when the surprise walks into the room clearly shows how healing truly replenishes the soul. Today, I’m in my Easter Bunny costume and this is my fourth child at the hospital. I walk in and sit next to a little boy on his bed. I hold his hand a moment as he gently opens his eyes. A little at first, then wider and wider as he fully acknowledges the Easter Bunny sitting right here, on his bed, holding his hand. I smile. He smiles and says, “Hi, I was hoping you’d come.” His weak little voice so soft and sweet. I give him a corvette match box car, the color, dark blue with hot flames down the sides. He holds it in his one little hand that doesn’t have any tubes in it and makes a few rev sounds. He looks at me and asks if he’s going home soon, he’s been here a while and he’s been feeling much better. I nod my head up and down a little to indicate that yes, he possibly will go home. For we all have two homes, one is physical, and one is graceful. I have no idea of which. He asks me if I could talk with him for a bit. He doesn’t get to visit with me enough. So, I let him talk about anything he wants. He doesn’t understand why he’s always sick and always in the hospital. He doesn’t do schoolwork or get to read. He doesn’t play games or sports, and he has no friends. But he loves his mom and dad and Grandparents. And he was told a baby sister is coming, so he wants to get better, so he doesn’t get her sick. Because he wants her to play outside and have friends and go to school. I hold his hand again and say out loud, “you can play with all the friends you want, outside in the clouds, because that’s where the angels play. And today, if you look, they’re playing with their kites.” And I point with my bunny paw toward the window, “See all their clouds out there are kites just flying around, that one there looks like a funny fish and there’s one there that could be a big bubble bee.” He started giggling and said, “yeah, I see them. There’s one that looks like a puppy, too.” He looks back at me and smiled and asked if I’d just stay for a bit. I nodded yes again and just let him hold my bunny paw. He fell asleep as I watched the kites.