Make A Wish

My 36-year-old nephew, Todd is in ICU. He was rushed by ambulance to the hospital on a Sunday night, suffering chest pains and shortness of breath. At 9 pm as I was packing to drive up to Owensboro the following day for the closing of Mom’s condo, I got the call from my sister Heather. She said the doctors thought Todd had suffered a heart attack and had blood clots in his heart and lungs. But they were unsure of the right course of action due to his genetic auto-immune disorder which had rendered him almost paralyzed and with a platelet disorder. Surgery was needed ASAP but they were afraid to touch him until they talked to his specialist at the National Institute of Health.

“I’m getting in the car now,” I said. “I’ll be there in two hours and twenty minutes.”

“No, Leslie, there’s no use in all of us being here all night. They won’t do anything until they talk to his doctor in the morning. I’m going to spend the night in the recliner here.”

I told Nick the news, called my sister, Stacy to let her know and then paced around the house, trying not to hyperventilate. I told Nick we’d better just start packing and be ready to go at a moment’s notice and then told Heather that I would leave my ringer on, to text me the moment the least little thing happened and to tell Toddy we love him dearly.

At midnight she texted that a blood thinner had been started, even though it was risky with his disorder, and they’d go from there. She ended with, “They keep saying ‘he’s really sick.’”

I said my first of many prayers for love, health and protection for Todd and for my sister and was surprised that I slept most of the night. I checked in by text when we got on the road asking her if she’d slept, what the latest news was. Todd was resting. The cardiologist said his heart was in pretty bad shape, enlarged on each side and they still didn’t know exactly what to do. 

“It’s so scary,” Heather texted. “I can’t lose my Baby Bubba.” 

“Oh God…,” I said to Nick. “Speed up.” Nick was just as upset and worried as I was. Todd was Nick’s little wrestling buddy and had been since he was a kid. Nick had been a huge championship wrestling fan his whole life and had always had difficulty finding pals to share in his enjoyment of the “sport.” He had reeled Chloe in for a while when she was younger, but that fizzled out and, since then, Todd has been his go-to. Over the years, he procured tickets for Todd and his buddies to see live wrestling shows. In the last few years, he’d made sure to get a bank of seats in the handicapped section because Todd has required a wheelchair for a few years now. 

“We’re coming straight to the hospital,” I texted back.

“Yes, do,” she answered.

We arrived in time to say hello to Todd before they took him for surgery. By this time, they knew that Todd had dangerous clots in both his heart and lungs and a huge one in his right leg. They prepared him for any scenario, unsure whether his heart was strong enough to make it through the procedure. Todd, who mostly laid quietly and without complaint, appeared to be trying to conserve his energy. He told the doc he was scared, but ready. A team of specialists from Louisville, a pulmonologist and a cardiac surgeon worked on him for a couple of hours and were satisfied with the results, but said it was a “wait and see” scenario.

After a scary incident the next night, the ICU nurse left the crash cart at the foot of Todd’s bed. All that was left to do was keep him stable and see if his heart would recover. Wednesday, he mostly slept and rested, hardly eating, not wanting to watch television or listen to music or talk or sit up. He laid on his back, hooked up to a dozen beeping instruments, unmoving. When asked how he was doing, he’d say, “Fine.”

Thursday morning, we saw a change. When Stacy and I arrived in his room, we found that Todd had eaten a few bites of food and sat with the head of his hospital bed propped up. His color was better and we were all relieved that he sounded more like himself. His younger brother, Ethan was visiting, sitting in his own wheelchair near the window (Ethan, unbelievably, carries the same gene and suffers the same auto-immune disorder as Todd. See my blog post Heather’s Van for more background info.) Stacy and I talked Heather into going home for a shower and some rest. She’d barely been out of the room, and then only for cigarette breaks. We took a seat on each side of his bed and asked him how it was going.

“Fine,” he said, predictably. “Hey, do you think Nick has any connections with Make-A-Wish?”

I told him I didn’t know and asked why he was asking. He squinted up at me and said, “Well, I’d really like to meet Rhea Ripley.”

“Who’s Rhea Ripley?”

“She’s a WWE wrestler,” he said. “She’s Smackdown champion. You know the Judgment Day?”

I didn’t know them, but told Todd that Nick probably knew who she was and could use some of his wrestling connections to try to reach her. Nick had been trying to weasel his way into the wrestling ring for decades, using any connection he made to get the federation to let him be a manager. He had finally been invited to participate in one match, the 2014 Ring of Honor pay-per-view. Of course, Todd and Leah were ringside. So Nick had met and befriended some wrestlers along the way.

“Nick says Make a Wish is for kids under 18,” I said, reading the text to Todd. “But maybe Nick and I can be the foundation and cover the costs for you to meet Rhea Ripley. He said he’d make some calls.”

“Okay, thanks!” he said, then laid there for a few seconds looking at the ceiling. “Is cremation cheaper than being buried?”

“Why?” I asked. “Do you think you want to be cremated?”

“Yeah…”

“You DO?” Stacy said, alarmed. She is a devout Catholic and cremation is a no-no for her. We discovered that fact when Mom chose to be cremated six months ago.

“Yeah…” Todd said. “I just want to make sure I’m dead first.” We all laughed. The old Toddy was coming back.

“You know, I almost bought a life insurance policy a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “But I didn’t do it.”

“Todd, you don’t have to worry about any of that,” I said. “We’ve got you. Whatever you want, we’ll do it. And you know, we all need to be thinking about this.” 

“I want Ryan to speak at my funeral like he did for Nana’s,” Todd said.

Stacy put her face in her hands and began to cry. Her son, Ryan had made a beautiful tribute to Mom at her funeral. I put my hand on her shoulder.

“No, it’s good to talk about this, you guys,” I said. “None of us know how much time we’ve got left. We should all let others know what we want. Nick and I need to be talking about it too.”

Stacy, hand still covering her face, nodded her head.

“I wish Mom had picked out songs for her funeral. What songs would you want at your funeral?”

Todd thought a minute, “Please Remember Me, Dancing in the Sky…That Hawaiian guy playing the ukulele…

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow?”

“Yeah, that one. And Willie Nelson’s song, Angels Fly Close to the Ground.”

“Oh, I don’t know that one,” I said.  I found the song on my phone and we all leaned in to listen to the opening strains. “If you had not fallen then I would not have found you… Angel flying too close to the ground…”

“Oh, Todd, this is too much…” I said, starting to cry. We all knew this song was about Leah. Leah, the love of Todd’s life, was the angel who flew too close to the ground. We listened to the next few lines. “And I patched up your broken wing and hung around awhile, trying to keep you spirits up and your fever down.” Which is what he did for Leah. She died in 2014, much too early, of Leukemia.

“Nick can sing this,” I said. “Nick would love to sing this. I could play it on the guitar and he could sing.”

“Yes. Yes, that’s what I want,” Todd said.

“You always love watching those Cousin’s Productions videos you guys made. Maybe we could show some of those in the waiting area. The one you starred in, The Mystery of the Lost Toilet Paper.”

“Yes, and Grease.”

Todd closed his eyes and, in a few moments, said, “You know how I like it when we’re all together on Christmas, on the holidays? Maybe we should do a holiday-themed funeral.”

“We could use white poinsettias,” Stacy said. “They wouldn’t have to be red.”

We all bounced around some more ideas for a Christmas-themed funeral, Christmas carols, a Christmas tree, lights strung up. Todd looked peaceful when he told us he was ready to take a nap.

“Okay,” Nick said on the phone on Friday morning. He had flown to North Carolina where he was attending his sister’s graduation from grad school. “I got hold of Matt Hardy. He’s going to Facetime with you today whenever Todd is ready.”

Todd was so excited. He was a long-time Hardy Boyz fan, had been following the antics of the brothers for many years, so Matt was a huge celebrity to him. We got Todd propped up in bed for his big video call. I answered and held the phone up to Todd’s face. He squinted at the screen and said, “Matt Hardy!”

“How you feeling, man?” Matt asked from his car where he was wolfing down his lunch.

“I’m feeling…it’s getting better every day.”

Matt told Todd he was driving to Virginia for a show and eating BBQ for lunch. Todd described some BBQ from a restaurant he liked in Owensboro and Matt said he’d take his word for it and check it out next time he was in the area.

“Well great. Hey, just let me know and we’ll go together,” Todd said.

“You got it, man. It’s a date, my treat. I’d love that.”

Matt reached for things to say to Todd, telling him about his schedule, where he’d be wrestling, saying he might be at a show in nearby Evansville in the future.

“Hey…” Todd said. “I’ve seen videos of kids who get to go backstage and stuff. Is there any way I could do that myself?”

“Maybe I can work something out, man, get some VIP action going or something.”

Todd said that would be great, then started asking questions about other wrestlers, how they were doing, why so and so left and would they maybe come back. Matt answered every question in detail. Todd asked about Matt’s brother and tag team partner, Jeff, how he was doing with his drinking problem and Matt stayed with him the whole time. He ended the call by telling Todd to keep in touch and saying he wanted to see Todd 100% the next time they spoke. Todd was tickled pink and those of us watching were all smiles.

A few hours later, Nick texted, “Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis are going to Facetime with Todd. He’ll know who they are. They were in that Ring of Honor match with me.” 

We googled them just to make sure we knew the latest news about them. But Todd was up to speed on most wrestlers. Mike and Maria gave Todd a big hello and asked him how he was doing. They were calling from backstage at a wrestling show at Universal Studios in Orlando. 

“Do you want to see the set?” Mike asked. “I’ll show you the way we walk through the ring and you can get a look at it. We walk through and go here. You go up here and walk here and then, Boom. There’s the big LED screen and there’s Maria making her entrance, there she goes. Then when we’re done, we make our way back here and we’re done. Yeah, man, this is what we do.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Todd said. “I talked to Matt Hardy about an hour ago and he said he’d get me free tickets to his show.”

“Oh Yeah? What show do you want to go to?” Maria asked.

“Whatever I can, I don’t care.”

“I tell you what,” Mike said. “You get yourself healthy, you get yourself better, and whatever show you want to go to, you hit me up. You guys have my number now. I can’t do WWE but I can do any AEW or any Ring of Honor show you want to go to, so you let me know. 

“What about TNA?” Todd asked.

“I might be able to swing that because I’ve got some friends over there. They’re good people over there. You got my number now, man so I’ll tell you what, I mean this honestly, if you need anything you reach out to me. If you just need someone to talk to, if you just want a buddy. That’s what we’re here for, man.”

“I’ll do that!” Todd said.

“Yeah, and you’ll keep telling me how much better you’re getting and the next time I talk to you, I bet you’re going to be fucking 100%.”

“I hope so,” Todd said. 

I texted Nick, “These people were incredible! They were so friendly and upbeat and supportive and kind. Todd is over the moon.”

“So glad. I’m sorry I’m not there to help,” Nick texted.

“Are you kidding?” I texted back. “Getting these wrestlers to call Todd is the most helpful thing you could have done. I mean, we were all in tears watching Todd interact with these people. Watching his face while listening to these people be so generous and encouraging. It’s the best thing I’ve experienced in years.”

Nick said former head of WCW and wrestling icon, Eric Bischoff would be calling the next day and that Eric might be able to get Rhea Ripley on board. We were getting closer.

By Sunday, it looked like Todd was out of the weeds. He was being weaned off both the oxygen and blood pressure medication, his color was better, he was eating a few bites of food and his vitals looked good. The pulmonologist said he was Unstably Stable. Plans were to get him transferred to a regular hospital room the next day. I thought it was safe to go back to Tennessee and told Heather I’d drive back up at a moment’s notice. Before heading out, I said, “Nick said to let Eric know when Todd’s available. He’ll Facetime you.” 

I called Heather the next day and she put me on speaker with Todd. Physical therapists had him sitting in his wheelchair. “What are you up to?”

“Oh…just waiting to see what wrestler is going to call me next,” he said. Heather and I laughed. Toddy was back.

Rhea Ripley hadn’t called yet, but Jeff Hardy had and Nick’s Make-A-Wish foundation was still hard at work behind the scenes. Chances are Todd’s wish will come true. And it looks like it won’t be his final one.