Our Little Boy, Rheesey

Rheese was born on February 9, 2000 with multiple heart defects. He underwent 6 heart surgeries along with various other surgeries in his short time on earth. Rheese was a happy little boy. There was something about him that made you smile. He was also a very smart little boy. He asked questions that most of us never would have thought of asking and I didn't know the answer many times. In school, his favorite subject was Social Studies, specifically American History. He would come home and tell us the things he learned. I remember one time we were sitting at the dinner table, Rheese must have been in 2nd grade, and he started talking to us about the White House. He told us all about the fire and the year it happened. He told us about some of the presidents that lived there. He talked for quite a while. I remember sitting there in awe thinking that I couldn't believe that a 7 yr. old was telling us all of this. He also loved the Statue of Liberty. Rheese could tell you what all the symbolism was on her, like the 7 spikes on her crown represented the 7 continents. He liked to talk about her and hoped to one day see her in person. The closest he got was the one in Las Vegas at New York, New York. When George and I went back east in 2009, we got to see the Statue of Liberty. We got a Christmas ornament with her on it and Rheese made sure he got to put it on the tree each year.

Rheese also had a great love for all things Disney. I've always been a huge Disney fan but not like Rheese. He thought about it all the time. He wanted to be an Imagineer when he grew up so that he could design new rides. He couldn't wait to meet Walt Disney and talk to him about Disneyland and I'm sure that he has done just that. I can just imagine him getting up to heaven and saying, "Where's Walt? We need to talk." His 2nd trip to Disneyland was when he was 3 yrs. old. It was just one day and it rained nonstop until evening. It was also crowded. Don't believe people who say that Dis is empty when it rains. We spent most of the day trying to get from ride to ride as quickly as possible or sitting where it was covered. I don't remember how long after that trip this next conversation started happening but it was a while. I'm thinking like 6 mo. to a year. So he comes to me one day and wanted to talk about Dis. He brings up a ride, I don't remember which one but I'm pretty sure it was one in Fantasyland. He then says, "Don't you go this way, this way and this way to get to ____ from____?" I thought about it and I couldn't believe that he had the right directions to the ride. He did it with a few other ones too. He had been there one day, in the rain, while it was crowded a long time before and this 3 or 4 yr. old could tell me exactly where things were? I was shocked, in awe, impressed, surprised and many other things. It was after this that he wanted to talk about Dis all the time. I remember laying on my bed with my eyes closed and opening my eyes only to find Rheese sitting there staring at me. He would say, "You wanna talk about it?" That was code for: Let me talk at you about Dis. He would give us walk thrus on the rides. He would ask why Walt put certain rides in certain places or why he made things the color they were or other questions I couldn't answer. He didn't really want the answer, I don't think, he just liked to talk. Rheese's favorite character was Goofy. When we went to DisneyWorld he got this big, floppy Goofy hat that was way too big for him. It made me laugh when he would wear it. He was so proud to wear that hat. It was so cute!