Trucks’ special delivery warms hearts
It was Kate Cook’s ecstatic, heartfelt request on behalf of her little boy, who had just received a new lease on life, that led to the heartwarming scene that unfolded in Georgetown yesterday.
At 4 years old, Tommy Cook is far too young to have been subjected to a life and death battle with liver cancer. But with God’s grace and the genius of the best doctors on the plant, Tommy has beaten the disease into remission.
In her joy, Kate Cook turned to Facebook to convey a wish on behalf of her son. She announced that Tommy, like so many other 4-year-old boys, loved big trucks, especially big dump trucks. She hoped that perhaps a big truck might be able to pass by their house in Georgetown to celebrate his return home.
But instead of one, a convoy of more than 40 big trucks passed little Tommy’s house yesterday, accompanied by a procession of big fire trucks that drove by with their lights flashing and sirens wailing.
“When our Deputy Chief Rusty Ricker saw Mom’s message on Facebook,” Georgetown firefighter Glenn Silva told me yesterday, “he made it clear that those dump trucks would be accompanied by eight pieces of fire apparatus. And so we were out there to do whatever we could for that little guy.”
Glenn Silva is not just a firefighter and EMT, he is a father and grandfather.
“Mom’s message just struck real deep,” Silva added, “if you’re a parent you pray to God that your children are healthy. That’s every parent’s wish, I don’t care who you are. That little boy may have only wanted to see dump trucks, but when the chief saw that message, we knew he was going to see fire trucks, too.”
Silva pointed out that Georgetown fire also reached out and included the presence of a pink pumper truck that’s become an icon in many local cancer crusades.
By late yesterday afternoon, Silva was off representing the town’s firefighters at a local Halloween party.
And though Tommy Cook wasn’t celebrating a birthday yesterday, in a very real way, he was.
This little boy may one day grow out of his obsession with big dump trucks, but he will never forget the Saturday when his mother’s request was happily answered by a crowd of neighbors and strangers who piloted their big trucks past his front door.
Nor is he likely to forget the lights and sirens of fire engines and police cars from Georgetown as well as those from the neighboring communities of Topsfield, Boxford and Groveland.
What they happily celebrated yesterday was the grown-up struggle one little boy endured and a mother’s wish to share her joy along with her gratitude.