FAMILY DISCOVERS WISHES CAN COME TRUE

Festival workers kindness 'warmed our hearts'

Mohammed Adam, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, August 15, 2008

Consumed with worry after her daughter's heart surgery, Jennifer Conway-MacMurdo received the surprise of her life Wednesday as four-year-old Heather was wheeled into her room at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

Waiting for them was a large gift bag containing several messages of prayer, hope and support for her daughter from total strangers. It lifted the gloom from her heart and cheered up the entire family.

"It was such a wonderful surprise. It was amazing to realize that complete strangers cared enough to do that. It warmed our hearts and brought tears to our eyes," Ms. Conway-MacMurdo said.

It all began on Saturday when Ms. Conway-MacMurdo, husband, Jason, and three children attended the Lumière festival at Stanley Park in New Edinburgh. A lantern festival of music, dancing and children dressed up as fairies. One of the traditions of the festival is wishing wall where people write up their wishes and tie them up to a line of trees. After writing up the children's wishes, Ms. Conway-MacMurdo added her own, which was for Heather's heart surgery to go well the coming Wednesday. The family went home to Orléans thinking it was all fun.

But Joanne Hughes, who runs the festival said the workers read the wishes and were so moved, they decided to do something to show their support.

"We had been on our feet for 16 hours so we sat down for a break and started to read the wishes. We came to this one and we really felt sad," Ms. Hughes said.

"Our feet hurt, but suddenly they didn't hurt anymore. We all said we should do something."

They went out and bought gifts the children wished for and called CHEO, which agreed to help them place their surprise gift in Heather's room.

"It was the nice thing to do for this girl and her family," Ms. Hughes said.

One of the messages to Ms. Conway-MacMurdo said: "We read the wishes at 2:30 a.m. ... and when I got to your star, I was unable to read it loud. As a mom of two girls, I could not imagine how you were feeling. Your wish made our tired feet better ... Our Lumière wish is that Heather joins us for 2009 as our special Lumière fairy."

Heather was born with a heart defect and has already had four surgeries. The latest one was to try and open her aortic valve and while it went well, doctors say she might need a new valve this fall.

Ms. Conway-MacMurdo said the gesture by total strangers has left a lasting impression on her.

"I feel that these women did help make our wishes come true," she said.