Barbara Bush granted boy’s wish in 1989
Around the office at Make-A-Wish Wisconsin, they still talk about the Barbara Bush wish.
It was 1989. Bush and her president husband, George H.W., occupied the White House, where the big news was their springer spaniel Millie’s litter of puppies.
Andrew “A.J.” Hulverson, an 11-yearold Waukesha boy critically ill with leukemia, was invited to make a wish, and he said he wanted to meet the famous puppies.
Make-A-Wish contacted then-Sen. Bob Kasten and anyone else who could help make it happen. A.J. was invited to the White House along with his parents, Nancy and Jim, and brother Matthew.
Barbara Bush personally greeted the family when they arrived. Dennis McCann, then a Milwaukee Journal columnist, described in an article on May 3, 1989, what happened next:
“While Nancy and Jim marveled, Barbara Bush climbed into the big box where Millie rested, assured her that everything was all right, and handed each of the boys a puppy to hold. You could tell that she’s a grandma, because that’s how she treated the boys.
“The puppies were too small to walk, and their eyes were hardly open. Barbara Bush asked A.J. whether he wanted to name one, and of course he did. He named her Brandy after a family dog who had died. He held her for a pretty long time, until Brandy started to whimper and went back to Millie.”
McCann called Bush a first-class first lady, an opinion being voiced a lot this week after this wife of one president and mother of another died at her home in Houston at age 92.
Bush didn’t need to imagine what Nancy and Jim Hulverson were feeling. Her daughter, Robin, was 3 when she was diagnosed with leukemia in 1953. Before the year’s end, the little girl was dead.
The progression of A.J.’s disease also was shockingly rapid. The leukemia was discovered in January 1989, and he slipped away just days after returning home from the White House visit in April.
Judy Schwerm was president of Make-A-Wish Wisconsin back then, and she vividly remembers A.J.’s story. The first lady’s kindness did not end when the Hulversons were ushered out.
“Barbara wrote to the mother of A.J. She sent pictures from the White House. They arrived the day the child died, and every single one had a handwritten note on it. Later, when she heard he had passed away, she sent a handwritten note,” she recalled.
Schwerm says McCann’s beautifully written column greatly increased public awareness of the wish foundation here, which was then five years old. A.J.’s wish was the 139th one granted.
“Just to give you a point of reference, we’re at about 6,250 now,” said Patti Gorsky, the current president. “More than a wish a day we’re granting right now for kids in Wisconsin” with critical illnesses.
Nancy and Jim helped out at Make-A-Wish
Wisconsin for years after their son’s death until they moved away from the Milwaukee area. I was unable to contact them for this article.
A.J.’s wish went beyond just meeting the puppies. He wanted to visit other historic sites in Washington. And he longed to meet rock star Huey Lewis, who also made news this month when he announced his hearing loss was forcing him to cancel concert dates.
The meeting could not be arranged, but Lewis surprised A.J. and his brother with a nice long telephone call, and then sent a bunch of T-shirts, records and other cool stuff.
Schwerm had one other memory that captures the spunk and common sense of Barbara Bush. The first lady thought it was odd that the Hulversons did not show up with cameras.
“They said the Secret Service took our cameras. So she called and said get those cameras up here so they can take pictures.”
That’s all it took.