For Ailing Children, Wishes Come True

On a hot day in June, Park Yoo-jin (alias, age 5), who likes ‘character dolls’, was lying in a hospital quietly making a wish.

“God! Help me play with ‘Pungpungi’ and ‘Pororo’.”

But Yoo-jin can’t move her arms and legs. Her capillary vessels had swollen, creating red areas in her little body, so that her skin always seems to burn brightly red.

Suffering from a rare disease called skin myositis, Yoo-jin could only shed tears when she heard the people passing by her door saying, “You never know when that child may die.”

When Yoo-jin could barely start to walk at age 3, her legs started to give way, and soon she could not even lift her spoon. At an age when she could not even understand the word ‘wish’, she was sentenced with a rare disease and waited for death.

On Yoo-jin’s fifth birthday on July 4, welcome guests arrived. Pungpungi and Pororo had visited the hospital with a cake and crayons. Yoo-jin, who could not open her eyes well because the muscles around her eyes had been deformed, stared at Pungpungi.

“Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday to Yoo-jin… Happy birthday to you.”

Pungpungi and Pororo sang with her parents and cut the cake. Though Yoo-jin was happy, she could not express her joy, but buried her smile within the depths of her sick muscles.

Two weeks later, Yoo-jin passed away hugging her Pungpungi and teddy bear, with the cries of her father and mother behind her. Yoo-jin closed her eyes with a smile on her face. She might think of her last birthday.

A few days ago, a letter arrived from Yoo-jin’s mother to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Korea, whose volunteers had been wearing the Pungpungi mask.

“2006 was the year when Yoo-jin departed for heaven. I’m happy to think that in heaven, Yoo-jin will be playing with her favorite Pororo and Pungpungi characters. I truly thank you for holding a party with the things that Yoo-jin loved, so that she did not feel lonely on her last journey.”

Since 2003, the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Korea have been granting wishes for children and teenagers aged 3 to 18 that are suffering from terminal illnesses and cannot survive beyond the age of 18.

Operating in 27 countries around the world, the foundation grants wishes when a request of a child with terminal illness is made through the phone (02-3453-0318) or the website (www.wish.or.kr), whereupon volunteers are dispatched to assess the situation.

This foundation granted the wishes of 200 children this year, while ten children whose wishes were granted passed away.

Most children whom the foundation helped this year were no different from others. 115 (64 percent) wanted “to have something,” and among them, 47 percent “wanted a laptop computer.”

22 percent, or 40 children wanted “to go somewhere”, and 30 asked for Jeju-do. 5 children asked for Everland as their final wish.

These children had thought of their death, but some asked for a future hopes as a ‘wish’. Some wished ‘to become a baker’ that can “eat delicious things all I want,” while others wished to become fashion models and club DJs.

Children who “wanted to meet someone” included Yoo-jin, who “wanted to meet dolls,” “meet the singer Insuni,” and “meet the singers ‘Super Juniors.’”

As the year draws to a close, they are ‘candles flickering in the wind,’ who know their short lives are also drawing to a close, but even today this foundation is flooded with bold ‘wishes.’

dnsp@donga.com