CALGARY – “Ank-ooh!” Bella Thomson exclaimed, eyes wide with appreciation. It’s lunch time at Calgary’s Ronald McDonald House and a meal has just been prepared by a team of volunteers. According to Bella’s mom, Kyla, the almost two-year-old loves coming by just before meal time in order to say thanks.
“She’s amazing,” Kyla Thomson said with a smile. “She’s my little sweet pea. After all she’s been through: hundreds of pokes, nine surgeries, some torturous hospital procedures and she’s developed patience, she smiles and she loves to talk a lot!”
Little Bella suffers from a very rare form of a condition called SCID, or Severe Combined Immune Deficiency. Also known as the “bubble boy disease,” children with SCID have highly compromised immune systems and cannot fight off infections. It’s meant Bella has spent more than 500 nights in hospital, a province away from her family’s Swift Current, Sask. home.
“Home is a difficult word,” Thomson said as her eyes filled with tears. “It’s been two years since we’ve been home. My daughter turns two next week and she’s never been home.”
Still, the Thomsons feel fortunate. While Bella receives treatment at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, her family is able to remain close by at Calgary’s Ronald McDonald House.
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The large, welcoming building currently houses 23 families just like the Thomsons, offering them all a safe place to sleep, hot, nutritious meals and all the emotional support they could ask for.
“When you are so stressed you can’t put words together and you don’t have the energy to eat, you have someone there to give you a hug and tell you, ‘everything is going to be okay.'”
Being away from home and family can be particularly painful in December, so each year, the Ronald McDonald House tries to bring the spirit of the holidays into its home away from home.
“We try to make being here for the holidays a very special time,” said Larry Mathieson, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Southern & Central Alberta. “Our volunteer bakers and home-for-dinner groups work to provide delicious tastes and smells for the season, while donations from our wishlist help us make sure there is something under the tree for each of our families. Most important, we offer a space for families to be together over the holidays. Often times extended family will come for a visit and we do the best we can to accommodate everyone.”
The Thomsons are hopeful this year they will be able to spend Christmas at home in Saskatchewan, but they will always have incredible memories of last Christmas, because the family was able to spend it in a place with so much love.
“It was great for my husband and myself to wake up with all the lights and the massive Christmas bag for Bella–to bring that to the hospital for her to open? It was great!”
Bella received a bone marrow transplant last March and has been doing very well since. Her family is hopeful she will be able to go home to Saskatchewan in time for Christmas this year. You can read more about Bella’s journey on her mom’s blog here.
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