Magical Moments

"There was a six-year-old girl, who was so excited to learn how to do the magic trick with the combining silk square in a pouch, that she went and found different people to do it for. First she found a volunteer who she knew, but before long, she was showing families she had never met before. Talk about empowered!"

"A nurse took us aside and told us that this seven-year-old boy had just lost his sight. He was incredibly depressed. 'Could you try to cheer him up?' About four doctors and six nurses were looking on, wondering what would happen. We approached his bed. He was on his side, curled up in a ball, with his eyes open. I said in my clown voice, 'I am a clown. Can I play my harmonica for you?' 'No,' he very softly said. 'Can we sing a song for you?' 'No.' I asked, 'What is your favorite food?' 'Chocolate pudding,' he said. 'Oh, would you like a story about chocolate pudding?' 'Yes.' So Periwinkle and I made up a dumb story about chocolate pudding and taking a bath in it with all of his friends. We just traded off silliness about his favorite food and he smiled! His parents and relatives were laughing and laughing. I still see his sweet little face!"

"A 15-year-old young woman looked at us with HUGE skepticism as she gave us permission to enter her room. 'She thinks clowns are weird,' her mom said. The girl asked, 'Are you weird?' I squeaked, 'Are we weird? We’re Hospital Clowns! Would you like a clown manicure?' I put a sticker on my own stubby nail to calm her fears of having anything weird visit her. She laughed and laughed and said, 'Oh yes, I would love a clown manicure.' She was so excited. Then we sang (pretty badly) while she beamed with delight! Her mom asked if we were ministry clowns and where we got our training. I couldn’t really answer, since I did not want to break the spell of her daughter being in Clown World. Her daughter said, 'Mom, don’t ask questions!' Yes, she had truly entered Clown World, and was loving it!"

"We asked a teenage girl who her favorite movie star was. 'Patrick Swayze', she said, with a huge grin. Oh, I love the movie, Dirty Dancing! and her smile grew larger and larger. Then we reenacted the moment where Jennifer Grey jumps off the stage into Patrick Swayze’s arms at the end of the movie and they dance together. Of course, we did it as clowns, and she was laughing hysterically. And to be honest, so were we!"

"A teenage girl had a breathing tube that made it difficult for her to speak. She was on precautions, so we gowned up. Meanwhile, the physical therapist was desperately trying to get her to move her legs over to the side of the bed to sit up. The girl was very stubborn and refused. We began by singing a song with her name in it. Then we moved onto noses. I pressed Sweet Bones nose several times while he stuck out his tongue. Then when he pressed my nose, I blurted out names of food like: pizza, french fries, and hamburger. A little more of a smile and eye contact. We then asked her what her favorite food was – hotdog. So we began to sing numerous songs substituting hotdog for many of the words. 'Somewhere over the hotdog…' 'Take me out to the hotdog…' 'Puff the magic hotdog… ' She was laughing, pointing at our ridiculousness, covering her face with dismay at our stupidity. We began singing about sitting up and getting her hotdog legs over the bed. Our interaction was so lively that by the time we left, she was doing exactly what the nurse needed her to do. How incredible was that?"

"A baby was crying and crying in the PICU. 'Oh, calm him down,' the nurse begged us. A little six-month-old was swinging in the swing-o-matic, crying and crying. I pulled up a chair to be on his level, took out my bunny ballerina, put my harmonica in my mouth, and played very softly as my puppet, very, very slowly danced. The baby stopped crying and looked hypnotized and entranced."

ʺThis precious little boy backing away down the hall, step by step, clutching his stand of tubes and devices, moving through time, in suspended motion, step by step, every step as a drum beat; using his free hand to blow me kisses, one by one, one by one." 

“He was lying in bed, hooked up to many monitors, and very frail looking, when three clowns came to his bedside. He pulled himself up, with much effort, to see and interact with the clowns. I started to juggle — not very well. He asked for the balls to try. He was able to juggle. The smile that came over his face lit up the room. The boy didn't want us to leave. It was an incredibly touching moment. A very sick boy was able to act like a boy in an environment that doesn't lend itself to play."

“We went into a room and the girl looked too old to be entertained by a bunch of silly clowns. Her head was covered in a black scarf and she was about 16 years old. Her eyes absolutely lit up when we entered and she seemed to perk up. We asked if we could dance for her and sing and she said, 'No.' She was Muslim from the United Arab Emirates and it was against her religion to listen to music. So one of the clowns asked if we could do a silent dance for her. She agreed and then watched us, entranced by our costumes, makeup, glittery sparkles, and funny movements. We were saying good-bye and almost out of the room when she said, ‘I will never, ever forget you,’ in such a heartfelt way that I felt my throat closed up and had to bite my lip not to cry, or run back and give her a hug. She seemed so exotic and isolated when we first walked into the room and when we left, I felt we had left something special with her.” 

“At MGH we met a small, excited 4-year-old girl in the hallway. She was dragging her IV with one hand and her mom with the other. ‘She wants clowns,’ her mom told us. When we had visited her earlier, she was open to us but shy. As a large group, the clowns gathered around her and gave her the remote control. She pointed it first at one of us and then another, going around the circle making each of us jump, swing our arms and move in different ways. Well, by the end, her face was lit up and she was laughing so hard she was bent over. Her mom had a big smile as she simply said, 'This is the best medicine she's had all week.'”

“We had the little girl playing with us clowns as marionettes. She would pull our strings. I really felt like we reached her and empowered her to join our world, thus helping her forget her illness, forget where she was!” 

“One girl at Franciscan's just laughed and laughed, especially when we clowns tried the dance ballet. She had a picture of herself as a ballerina on the door.”