Ricky loved to play games when he was feeling well. In fact, that was a good indication of his health. He would say, “Let’s play a game.” Usually it was Aggravation. He won almost every game.
He kept a little blue notebook with scores in it, such as “Mother- 0, Ricky-50,” indicating the number of games lost and won. If a game was set up, the nurse would say, “I see Ricky is feeling better; he’s going to beat his mother again.”
Sometimes we played Rummy or Crazy Eights. I learned to carry a deck of cards in my purse so we could play when he was waiting his turn for a treatment or to see a doctor.
When the movie Jaws came out, Ricky had to have a Jaws game. I looked everywhere for that game. It took weeks, but I finally found it. Any member of the hospital staff that happened by was roped into playing Jaws…even the doctors on rounds took a turn.
Ricky was also a good artist. His favorite subjects were football and Snoopy. He drew or painted the Steelers and the Cowboys in various plays. They were very realistic. Sometimes he had trouble getting the feet just right. Once he did a mural for his hospital room of Lynn Swann and Terry Bradshaw. He had use of only one hand at the time, but he used large bold strokes.
Somehow Ricky accumulated a stuffed dog collection. It really didn’t start out that way.
In April, when we were home from the hospital, Dale took Ricky for a walk in his wheel chair and Brandon, his dog, was running along beside him. Suddenly Brandon dashed across the street and at that moment a car hit him. Ricky saw the whole thing, and it was a terrible emotional experience for him.
Of course, he wanted a Snoopy dog and a dog like the one across the street that was licorice colored. Anyway, all these animals turned into quite a collection.
Ricky also had a whole bedroom full of plastic people or dolls. Dale didn’t like the idea of a boy having dolls, but Ricky enjoyed using his imagination and moving these characters around.
He had the Six Million Dollar Man and the Atomic Man, plus all the people from Batman. Then he had the Johnny West set, adding an Indian or a horse at every birthday or holiday. He finally got the covered wagon for the set the last time he was at Stanford Children’s Hospital. We had said he could have it when he came out of surgery the last time. When he learned he wasn’t going to have the operation, he said, “Can I still have my covered wagon?” Dale bought it for him and set it up on the stand next to his bed with tape on the wheels so it wouldn’t keep rolling off. The wagon was the envy of everyone around.
Because Ricky loved football so much, Dale mentioned him to Bill Reid of the San Francisco 49ers at a banquet for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Bill said he would be glad to visit Ricky at the hospital. I hadn’t been told anything about this, so when he and his wife arrived at the hospital, I asked everyone, “Who’s Bill Reid?”
He was very nice about my not knowing him. He said he had a football to present to Ricky signed by all the players of the 49ers. It turned out that Bill and his wife had been exposed to the measles so they could not come in to the hospital. They had to give Ricky the football through the window. Ricky thought that was funny, but he treasured the football. He would take it out of the plastic covering to show it to the doctors and nurses and the other children. They weren’t allowed to touch it though. Then it had to go back into the plastic bag and into its box.
Every time Ricky was home from the hospital, he insisted on going to the Little League games in his wheel chair. This year he had been put on the Cardinals team. He had a red baseball cap and red uniform pants. He couldn’t get the T-shirt on over his cast. He wore the hat and pants to the games.
Even though he didn’t play in one game, he was given a trophy at the end of the season.
Chapter 15 to follow
