TULSA, Okla. – If you could have seen all of Grant’s face it would have shown a beaming smile. The only clue the smile was there, though, was from the beam in his eyes.
The rest of his face hidden by a hospital surgical mask covered up what everyone knew was there as his mother wheeled him through the lobby of Saint Francis Children’s Hospital in Tulsa.
Sitting before him was a line of tables with Bassmaster Classic anglers sitting on one side and children like Grant on the other.
See photos of the Classic anglers children’s hospital visit.
Grant (his full name and circumstances withheld by request) calls himself a fisherman. He loves to go to nearby Lake Tenkiller, and his fish of choice is a bass. The 7-year-old won’t be fishing anytime soon, he’s currently confined to a wheelchair that has a plethora of bottles and tubes hanging from it. But for a moment Monday, a group of Bassmaster Classic anglers gave him the chance to think about going fishing.
Within moments of Grant’s arrival, Charles Sim plopped a Berkley hat on the young boy’s bald head, covering the remnants of radiation. Moments later Brandon Palaniuk places in his frail arms a new youth model fishing rod and reel, while others visited with him, colored scenes on paper and created a fish from construction paper and a clothes pin. By the time Grant was at the end of the line, the sickly child being pushed by his mother had transformed to a kid riding a wheelchair with beaming eyes and an undeniable smile.
Along the way, he gave an immeasurable gift to a group of anglers getting ready to begin what could be the most important week of their life.
“This really puts everything in perspective,’’ said Alton Jones. “Makes you realize what is really important in life.”
The annual trip in the host city of the Bassmaster Classic has grown to be a favorite event for those anglers who choose to take part. The Monday before the hard work of the Classic begins, a group of anglers arrive at the local hospital, offering anything they can to children wanting to see these colorfully clad anglers.
The first part of their visit this year was in the lobby, where parents and nurses brought those well enough to get out of their rooms through the line of anglers. The second part involved groups of anglers visiting patients’ rooms unable to make the trip to the lobby.
All those visits started with a smile on the face of patient and angler alike and ended with bigger versions when a nurse would call an end to the visit.
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,’’ Kevin VanDam said, standing outside a 14-year-old patient’s door who wasn’t well enough to make the trip to the lobby. “I have a special place in my heart for these children and what they are going through. I can remember my own sons having to spend weeks and weeks in a hospital when they were young. It breaks your heart as a parent.
“If we can just give them a little happiness then it means the world to them. And really we probably leave here feeling like they’ve given us more than we could ever give them.”
To a man, the dozen or so anglers who took part in the hospital visit left with a smile on their face and a small weight in their heart for those children who because of circumstances out of their control might never get to go fishing.
“I could live my whole life and never see this many sick kids,’’ said James Watson. “Yet there’s hospitals all across the country with kids like this. It opens your eyes and makes you think.”
As to a group of children in Tulsa; they started their day confined to a hospital but because of these anglers’ interest they had a few moments to dream about fishing and a reason to heal.