Makeover reveal expected Sunday
By DEB BENTLY
Staff Writer
As surprises go, this should be a big one.
Rourke Wacholz, 6, his brother Arlo, 4, and parents Chelsey and Mike are expected to leave their rural Ellendale home Friday morning, and are forbidden to return until 11:30 Sunday. While they’re gone, Rourke’s bedroom will have new carpeting installed. The walls will be painted and decorated, new curtains will likely be hung.
And, if Rourke has his way, his bed will be much taller than the standard double-sized bed he inherited when he moved out of the room he once shared with his brother. But although he can be fairly sure his wishes will be followed, he is not being given any details.
All will be made clear at Sunday’s “reveal.”
Rourke is dealing calmly with the suspense, but is willing to report, “I’m most excited about the bed.”
While they’re away, the family will be taking part in a number of events. One of them is the HopeKids 5K/10K Run and Walk, set to take place Saturday in Lakeville. They also plan to go to Valleyfair under a program called “A Kid Again,” which provides fun and adventure for families raising children with life-threatening conditions.
The fun, excitement and suspense are a welcome break from a much different kind of routine which has been prevalent in the Wacholz family’s life since Rourke was diagnosed with leukemia less than a month after his fourth birthday.
It began, his mother Chelsey explains, with pain in his ankle so severe that he would crawl rather than walk, and would beg to be carried. Though they did not know it at the time, leukemia has a way of concentrating itself in a particular joint, “overfilling” it and causing intense pain in that one location.
Chemotherapy, hospital stays, a weakened immune system, have been constant features of their life ever since. Chelsey mentions that Rourke’s treatment involves phases. The first was especially aggressive and involved numerous hospital stays. Now in the final stage, he receives chemotherapy in the hospital every 85 days through a spinal tap–he has a surgically installed port which makes delivery “needle free.”
He also receives numerous other types of chemotherapy–many of them in the form of pills–at differing intervals. It’s confusing enough that Chelsey describes spending an hour or more each month sorting the various prescriptions into a four-week pill organizer.
However many systems they develop, however, Chelsey admits, “It doesn’t really get any easier.”
When Chelsey and Mike learned that the bedroom of another young cancer victim was getting a makeover, they thought they might look into the possibility for Rourke. My Happy Place of Mason City agreed to take on the project. The organization encouraged them to send out word and see whether sufficient funding could be raised.
They have since been surprised at how quickly things have moved: They made contact with My Happy Place only about a month ago, and were given a time frame for the project within a couple of weeks.
And now it’s almost here. The family knows what information was provided to the designers: the measurements of the room, Rourke’s love of dinosaurs and reptiles, that his favorite colors are teal and green. Given that Rourke has been very clear about THE LOFT BED, they are fairly certain that wish will be followed. But beyond that, it’s a surprise.
This time, they know it will be a pleasant one.