This morning, I was scheduled to work in the castle, and I couldn’t wait to get started. The castle truly is a magical place. Everything is decorated just like a castle should be, with Rusty, the knight in armor that greets everyone at the door, and king and queen thrones. Although these features are fun and add to a fanciful atmosphere, they are not what make the castle truly special.
The most spectacular part of the castle is the ceiling. If you look up, you will literally see over 100,000 gold stars on the ceiling. Each star was decorated by a Wish child who stayed at the Village starting in 1994, when the castle was built. The ceiling is completed covered, and the banners that hang down from the ceilings are covered as well. In 2011, a separate Star Tower had to be added to the castle to make room for more stars.
One of the most important tasks we did as volunteers at the castle was to help the children with their stars. Each Wish child colors, draws, or writes on their star—if they are immobile, a family member does this for them—and they get to watch a video of Stellar, the Star Fairy, taking their star from the box and putting it into the sky. Families can then come back the next day to see their star in the Star Tower.
Another important task we did was to run the Pillow Tree. Each child that comes to GKTW receives a small pillow, whether they are a Wish child or a sibling. As a video of an owl plays leading the kids through the activity, the other volunteers go back to select pillows for the children that will “magically” appear after the Wish child puts love into the tree and helps shake a vine to set the pillows loose.
I really enjoyed getting to select the pillows for each child. Since we had gotten to know each child a little before the Pillow Tree, we were able to select pillows that we thought they would like. It was fun to see that the pillows we had in mind for each child were always the ones that they wanted. As one of my group members said, “It was like giving them a personal gift.”
I had such a great time in the castle, and seeing the kids smile gave me such joy. Yet I found that some moments almost brought me to tears. There was one little boy who wasn’t very mobile. He just reclined in his wheelchair and was able to look around with his eyes. I knew he was seeing everything around him, but I wondered how much he was really able to understand and enjoy his experiences. Seeing him with his loving parents broke my heart. I didn’t know whether to smile at this precious child or cry.
Many times, the illnesses that the children have are not visible. You can barely tell that there is a problem, if at all. Sometimes it’s almost easy to forget that they are sick. They are just kids. But when I see children that are obviously sick, it brings me back to the harsh reality.
I was particularly struck hard when a little girl in a wheelchair came in with her mom and her brother and sister. The little girl was not verbal even though she looked around a lot and wanted to be able to hold and touch things. Since there were already two other volunteers with the mom and this little girl, I turned my attention to the other two children who had wandered off. As I set them up with some coloring, I began to talk to them. The very active and talkative sister then proceeded to tell me that she was five and that she was the little girl’s twin sister.
I kept thinking about this long after they left. How can one child be so healthy and active, while her twin is so sick? It was devastating to see how illness changes a child. It was a stark reminder that life is not fair. I can only hope that being in that castle today with those children and their families brought them a little joy, no matter how much they have been through.
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