Santa Claus receives many wishes from children during the holiday season, but one wish from a terminally ill five-year-old boy from Tennessee brought a Santa to tears.
Eric Schmitt-Matzen had just returned home from one of his gigs playing Santa, when a nurse from the local hospital gave him a call, asking him to come to the hospital because there was a very sick little boy who wanted to see Santa, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.
Schmitt-Matzen was used to playing Santa for years. He even looks the part and was born on December 6 (St. Nick’s Day). But nothing could prepare him for what he faced when he got to the hospital.
He arrived at the hospital in 15 minutes, where the boy’s mother gave him a Paw Patrol toy to hand to her son, Metro UK reported, and did not even have time to dress in his full Santa suit.
“When I walked in, he was laying there, so weak it looked like he was ready to fall asleep. I sat down on his bed and asked, ‘Say, what’s this I hear about you’re gonna miss Christmas? There’s no way you can miss Christmas! Why, you’re my Number One elf!” Schmitt-Matzen told the Knoxville News Sentinel.
The boy was so weak that he could barely open the present that Schmitt-Matzen gave him.
“They say I’m going to die. How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?” the boy asked.
Schmitt-Matzen replied, “When you get there, you tell ’em you’re Santa’s Number One elf, and I know they’ll let you in.”
The boy then sat up and asked one more question: “Santa, can you help me?”
Before Schmitt-Matzen could answer, the boy died in his arms.
“I cried all the way home,” Schmitt-Matzen told the Knoxville News Sentinel, adding:
I was crying so hard, I had a tough time seeing good enough to drive. My wife and I were scheduled to visit our grandchildren in Nashville the next day, but I told her to go by herself. I was a basket case for three days. It took me a week or two to stop thinking about it all the time.
He even considered h*****g up the Santa suit for good after that incident, but he continued.
This is not the first time Schmitt-Matzen has made a deathbed visit. He has made no less than four deathbed visits, including one with an adult who wanted to take a picture with Santa as something to knock off the bucket list, the Daily Mail reported.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/12/santa-cried-way-home-granting-terminally-ill-child-died-arms-final-wish/