Jude’s gift
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A Dundas family has started a new Christmas tradition. And it’s been whole heartedly endorsed by their family and friends. It was triggered by a life changing development that began a year ago.
This will be a different Christmas for Elle Grantham. The two-and-a-half-year old will get to spend it with her brother Jude who provided his own holiday surprise when mom Katie was 20-weeks pregnant: “We found out right before Christmas this time last year that he was going to be born with a congenital heart defect of some sort. And between Christmas and March it was a tough time.”
An ultra sound identified a narrow aortic arch. A diagnosis quickly confirmed at his birth March 28th, at Toronto’s Mount Sinai. Jude underwent heart surgery at Sick Kids a week later. “They go in through his ribcage which is fairly invasive for a little guy. They clamp off his aorta and cut the part out that’s narrow. So all the blood flow from his heart to the rest of his body was stopped for about 20 to 30 minutes. They said they had to work quickly.”
It’s a factual explanation of Jude’s surgery. Until Katie remembers how it felt: “It’s hard. I mean it was hard while it was happening. It’s like a dream now. I mean you don’t even realize you had a baby let alone a baby that has heart surgery.”
Jude was expected to be a month at Sick Kids. Instead it was a week and a half. The Grantham’s spent that time at Toronto’s Ronald McDonald House. A place Katie says they will be forever indebted to. “It resonates in my mind those families we spoke to every morning before going to the hospital. Or we’d walk over with them and I just think they’re still there and we got to come home. I would be doing them a disservice if I didn’t help in some way.”
Last June, the Grantham’s took part in The Foot Steps for Family Walk raising $5,000 for Ronald McDonald House Hamilton. This Christmas, they’re focusing on the Toronto house. After emailing a wish list to family and friends, they were overwhelmed: “We picked a day people would drop things off and our door was like a revolving door that day. It was unbelievable.”
The bounty of household goods and toys will be delivered by the Grantham’s this weekend in what will likely be a bitter sweet reunion: “It’s going to be the first time we’ve gone back since we were there with jude. But we need to go back.”
The Hamilton Ronald McDonald House also has a Christmas wish list posted on it’s website. Something to consider if you’d like to make a meaningful contribution this holiday season. And of course, cash donations are accepted online for any of the houses, that provide a home away from home for families of sick children.
