Jack's Run - Lesson in Courage and Hope
Traditionally, grandchildren pick up life lessons from their grandparents.
This grandmother is learning the power of courage and hope from her beloved Jack.
My daughter visited Jack’s kindergarten to share a book, as she always does. The story is about Leo the Late Bloomer, a tiger that learns lessons and skills when Leo is ready to learn. Leo “blooms” with new skills and new understandings. Jack’s mother quietly discussed learning and blooming and understanding new connections. She encouraged the eager five and six year olds to consider how they had bloomed in their first year of school. Then she passed out pieces of paper cut in a tulip shape. The plan was for students to draw something he or she had learned in kindergarten creating a garden of all their tulips together displaying the kindergarten’s blooming successes.
Returning to their desks with the tulips, the little ones concentrated, heads bent over their illustrations, then returned to the reading circle to share the accomplishments they’d thought of. One little boy could write all the numbers from one to one hundred. Another could tie his own shoes. A girl had filled her tulip with neat addition problems like 2+2=4 and 3+3=6. A beaming child proudly displayed his tulip filled with all the letters of the alphabet. Then came Jack’s turn.
His drawing was complicated. It showed a boy in a hospital bed by an IV pole with tubes from the bag running to a port implanted in the boy’s chest. Next to the bed, a woman in a chair, wearing a purple sweater, was reading a book. Jack said, “This is me getting my infusion treatment every Monday. This is my mother next to me. She comes every Monday and reads to me. This year I learned courage.”
In 2005, Jack was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition, called Hunter Syndrome, or MPS II, one of the disorders of mucopolysaccharidosis that inhibits enzyme production and affects vital organs, nerves, bones, and such functions as respiration, hearing, and joint movement—scary stuff. Jack has been responding well to a new treatment that became available less than a year ago. Although no cure is known yet, Jack’s physical improvement is actually noticeable, and we’re hopeful.
Last year friends and family organized a wonderful event called “Jack’s Run” to raise awareness and funds for research.The second annual Jack’s Run, for the hundreds of children like Jack waiting for treatment and hoping for a cure, will be in Eden Prairie on September 22, 2007. Online registration for the run is at www.jacksrunformps.org. or contact aldenpope@msn.com for information.
Jack turned seven in June, and has taught his grandmother, and many others, some important grown-up lessons about courage, determination, and love of life. Regardless of the evidence, I’ve held fast to hope. Seeing the evidence changing feels like quite a blessing.
This grandmother is learning the power of courage and hope from her beloved Jack.
My daughter visited Jack’s kindergarten to share a book, as she always does. The story is about Leo the Late Bloomer, a tiger that learns lessons and skills when Leo is ready to learn. Leo “blooms” with new skills and new understandings. Jack’s mother quietly discussed learning and blooming and understanding new connections. She encouraged the eager five and six year olds to consider how they had bloomed in their first year of school. Then she passed out pieces of paper cut in a tulip shape. The plan was for students to draw something he or she had learned in kindergarten creating a garden of all their tulips together displaying the kindergarten’s blooming successes.
Returning to their desks with the tulips, the little ones concentrated, heads bent over their illustrations, then returned to the reading circle to share the accomplishments they’d thought of. One little boy could write all the numbers from one to one hundred. Another could tie his own shoes. A girl had filled her tulip with neat addition problems like 2+2=4 and 3+3=6. A beaming child proudly displayed his tulip filled with all the letters of the alphabet. Then came Jack’s turn.
His drawing was complicated. It showed a boy in a hospital bed by an IV pole with tubes from the bag running to a port implanted in the boy’s chest. Next to the bed, a woman in a chair, wearing a purple sweater, was reading a book. Jack said, “This is me getting my infusion treatment every Monday. This is my mother next to me. She comes every Monday and reads to me. This year I learned courage.”
In 2005, Jack was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition, called Hunter Syndrome, or MPS II, one of the disorders of mucopolysaccharidosis that inhibits enzyme production and affects vital organs, nerves, bones, and such functions as respiration, hearing, and joint movement—scary stuff. Jack has been responding well to a new treatment that became available less than a year ago. Although no cure is known yet, Jack’s physical improvement is actually noticeable, and we’re hopeful.
Last year friends and family organized a wonderful event called “Jack’s Run” to raise awareness and funds for research.The second annual Jack’s Run, for the hundreds of children like Jack waiting for treatment and hoping for a cure, will be in Eden Prairie on September 22, 2007. Online registration for the run is at www.jacksrunformps.org. or contact aldenpope@msn.com for information.
Jack turned seven in June, and has taught his grandmother, and many others, some important grown-up lessons about courage, determination, and love of life. Regardless of the evidence, I’ve held fast to hope. Seeing the evidence changing feels like quite a blessing.
