A Monster Friend

The card was a big red monster card too big for a business-sized envelope. It is silly and goofy and chunky enough to handle by even the youngest children. It was one of a group that was sent in my most loyal volunteers. I knew just where to send these critters! The Children’s Hospital! The cards would brighten nightstands, doorways, or even the bottom of a child’s bed. Never did I imagine, though, that monster card would become a friend. A friend of a child who took him everywhere. A staff member shared with me that the little boy made that monster his buddy. A buddy who accompanied him to some scary things– like getting his blood drawn, an X-ray, and even a CT scan. They went everywhere together. That boy knew he had a friend. A friend who made him smile and kept him company. Anytime he flipped him the card over, it would remind him he was a “superhero just for being himself”. It was okay not to be okay sometimes. Our volunteer wrote on the back: “It’s ok to just be you!”

Friends support friends. That volunteer, well, she made a friend she never knew by designing that card. That little boy made a friend with that bug red monster. One he never expected. A monster too big to be in an envelope but not too big to fit the bill of being a friend.