Every golf course around the world has their "regulars" that they can count on seeing at a particular day and time each week for a tee time. One of my favorite things about the junior golf program at Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital is the number of kids who are "regulars" every Wednesday for GolfDay. Many of the children are at Ranken Jordan for an extended period of time; the average stay is approximately 42 days, and many are there longer than that. This provides the opportunity for the kids to really start to learn how to play golf with their medically complex health issues and utilize golf in their healing journey as a form of therapy. It also allows me to get to know the kids, and vice versa, as I get to be somebody who is a bit more than someone who just hands them golf clubs.
At a recent junior golf clinic this relationship was perfectly illustrated as one of our junior golfers, CC, who is usually in her wheelchair came to play in her hospital bed. Keep in mind that we have had many kids come to play golf who at some point during their stay at Ranken Jordan have played from their beds, wheelchairs, standers, walkers, etc., so this is not an uncommon occurrence. In fact, I have pictures of one child progressing from hitting golf balls out of his hospital bed to his wheelchair, then to his walker, followed by being held by his gait belt, then standing with no aid at all, and now he sends me regular updates from his weekly nine hole rounds of golf. We always find a way for the kids to play golf and enjoy their time! When CC arrived for golf on this particular day she told me, "I'm just going to watch today because I can't play from my bed." She and I have spent enough Wednesdays together that she knew the look I was giving her even though I was wearing a face mask. It didn't take her long to correct herself and say, "never mind, I forgot who I'm talking to. Where's my golf club?" CC, as she usually is, was correct with that statement!
For the next hour, CC hit golf balls, we all laughed, joked, and everybody had fun -- most importantly CC had fun! To have the good fortune to see her smiling and laughing while playing golf had me smiling for days afterwards. The feeling that comes from putting a smile on the face of a child in a pediatric hospital is indescribable. What really stuck with me after this day was how quickly CC went from thinking she could not do something because she was in her hospital bed to realizing that she could play golf from her bed! This is one of the best things I see on a regular basis at Ranken Jordan -- the staff and volunteers there show kids that they can do things that they did not think they could. That realization is as much a part of the healing process as anything else. Believing in themselves and seeing how much they can do gives them a sense of freedom that many likely would not have had if they had not been at Ranken Jordan. This is a big part of why I get so excited about going to see the kids every week! Bring on GolfDay!
