Bring healing art to kids in medical crisis

Parents like doing art, too. We see this a lot at the children’s hospital. On a recent Wednesday afternoon at OHSU Knight Cancer Center, we successfully enticed a mom and dad to spend time creating.  

Their spirits were high. Their son was acting more himself. In previous weeks, the illness, the surgery and the chemo had left so strong an impression on their boy, he really wasn’t the young man they knew. Glimmers were coming through that day. When the boy accepted our invitation to paint, his mother nearly leapt for joy. She eagerly agreed to paint with her son.

CHAP volunteer Julia delivered the palettes of acrylic paint and canvases to the boy's room. Soon though, the medical team needed to do a procedure on the patient. His displaced parents wandered down the hall to the Family Room where CHAP had set up shop. They had their paint in one hand and their canvases in another. 

The husband worked quickly and quietly. His canvas quickly came to life. His wife of many years sat at the art table in front of him. At one point, he teased her by running the end of his paintbrush through the back of her hair. They had great playful energy between them.  

His wife readily shared the good news about her son's treatment while she worked. The husband’s painting was quite sweet and we fussed over him. When we asked if we could take a picture of him holding his painting, his wife feigned irritation that we were giving so much attention to his "masterpiece." We had a good giggle over this and tried to bring a little focus to her project. 

She painted the word ”Hope" on her canvas. When we photographed her artwork, she teased us and said we were just trying to be nice. All this was very light-hearted. The husband and wife worked with us for quite a while. They were clearly happy to have this break, a little time to laugh together.   

We were honored to have a front row seat watching them connect, just by offering a little acrylic paint, some brushes and two small canvases. It doesn't take much to spread joy. We’re certain this good cheer trickled back into their son's hospital room!

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