MOLLY’S GIFT
A different sort of wedding gift.
Stephanie MacQueen says she is still moved to tears when she thinks of how a kind gesture by her brother and new sister-in-law on their wedding day in honour of her daughter snowballed into a windfall for a fund that assists families with sick children.
MacQueen’s seven-year-old daughter Molly was born with a rare genetic disorder, congenital disorder of glycosylation.
“With this disorder comes many medical (issues) — she has very severe epilepsy, kidney disease, she is mentally and physically challenged, so, unfortunately, we do spend quite a bit of time at the peds (pediatrics) ward at the hospital,” the Marion Bridge native said.
As MacQueen’s brother Joel prepared to wed Caitlyn MacDonald last month, they wanted to think of a way to involve Molly in their special day, as she wasn’t able to be a part of the wedding, physically. They decided that instead of providing party favours for their guests, they would make a $500 donation to the pediatrics ward in Molly’s honour.
“Then Joel’s parents decided that they would also give $500 and my parents also wanted to give money, and it kind of took off from there,” Caitlyn said.
When their master of ceremonies asked if they had thought about what they wanted to be the trigger for them to kiss during the reception, they decided it should also be a donation for the Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation.
“People just kept coming and coming and we ended up kissing a lot that night,” Caitlyn said.
In all, with the contributions from the 360 guests at the July 7 wedding, the grand total for the donation was $6,000.
“It’s pretty incredible, actually, it’s definitely not something we all thought was going to happen,” MacQueen said. “I cried the entire supper, every single time the MC announced that another donation was made or every time I saw someone walk up to the jar and put money in, I just cried, obviously happy tears, but it was very overwhelming for me just because I know how useful that money is and how far along that stuff goes.”
Caitlyn MacQueen said guests really embraced the idea, with tables challenging one another. She said she also found it touching, adding she believes the enthusiasm came from people knowing how much Molly means to them.
“I think that was the first moment that Joel cried, actually,
when we started seeing everyone come up, completely unexpected. I think it just goes to show the amazing friends and family that we have. It was completely overwhelming,” she said.
“Stephanie was seeing this money coming in, saying, ‘Oh my gosh, that could buy a new oxygen machine, that could buy this, that could buy that.’”
The particular fund through the pediatrics ward that has assisted Molly in the past is called the TLC fund, which provides financial support to families with sick children. Last year, Molly began being home-schooled and required a special desk that costs $1,000.
“Everything that’s medicalized has an extremely high price tag,” MacQueen said. “Most people don’t have an extra $1,000 for a desk so the hospital foundation, they paid for that for her. That desk made
an incredible difference in her first year of schooling.”
Twice Molly has had to be airlifted to hospital in Halifax and the TLC fund has provided gas and pre-paid credit cards to MacQueen to assist with expenses.
“You’re in such a traumatic state and situation, just the fact that you know that you … can go and buy myself something to eat or that when my vehicle gets to me I don’t have to worry about getting to the bank,” she said. “When you’re airlifted, you don’t think, ‘Do I have my wallet?’ It’s kind of a different state of mind.”
MacQueen said the donations are another representation of the support her family has always offered her.
“I have the best family, the most supportive family and it meant so much to me because it was my little brother,” she said. “The fact that they
thought about Molly, they made her a part of their day as far as I’m concerned and that meant more to me than I could say.
Joel and Caitlyn are now back home in Calgary, but they hope that others may be inspired to take similar action to raise funds for the regional hospital foundation.
“It’s wedding season, maybe this will encourage other couples to do this,” Caitlyn said. “It may not affect them personally, but there are so many great causes especially with the hospital foundation. People in Cape Breton are so giving.”
MacQueen said many people who haven’t been touched personally probably aren’t aware of the extent of the work done by the foundation.
“I feel knowledge is power and I think people need to be informed that there are so many children like Molly and similar to Molly right here at home in Cape Breton and they don’t always get the exposure that they need,” she said. “This money goes right back into Cape Breton, it goes right to families.”