Santa shares joy and teddy bears with kids at Edward Hospital
Theresa Borner doesn’t know if her triplets will be coming home for Christmas.
Born at 34 weeks, they spent their first moments out of an incubator this week in Edward Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
“I cry at the drop of a hat,” their Naperville mom said. “You can’t help it.”
Before Layla, Tyler and Olivia can come home, they’ll have to take every feeding by bottle, just one of many factors being monitored by the hospital staff in Naperville.
With all that’s going on, Borner was fearful her triplets wouldn’t get to see Santa this year.
But on Friday the man in the red suit visited dozens of patients in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units as part of Santa’s Gift, a nonprofit organization promoting a little holiday cheer for hospitalized children.
Borner said her husband rearranged his work schedule so they could capture their first holiday picture with the triplets and Mr. Claus.
“I think you see Santa with babies and you just think Christmas,” Borner said.
Santa also handed out teddy bears with three, simple words on their red shirts: “I am loved.”
Jill Mieszala’s 20-month-old daughter Savannah was waiting to have a CT scan to determine what’s causing the hearing loss in her little ears.
Before the scan, Santa stroked her blonde hair. And when the teddy bear joined her in her stroller, Savannah started sucking her thumb, her “soothing” gesture, her Aurora mom said.
“It’s quite magical,” Mieszala said of Santa’s appeal.
Naperville Mayor George Pradel also visited patients while an elf snapped pictures of the families.
“They just cherish the picture after they walk away,” Pradel said. “This is so inspirational for me.”
If you looked really closely, Santa kind of resembled Mark Brant, a Naperville man who has donned the red suit and white beard every December for the past 15 years to bring some joy to kids.
Sometimes he must wear a mask over his rosy red cheeks to give teddy bears to patients in isolation. He travels to five hospitals nationally.
“Santa doesn’t pause,” Brant said. “If there’s one more room, there’s one more room.”
With his ho, ho, ho’s and jingle bells announcing his arrival down hospital hallways, Santa stopped teenagers and adults Friday, urging them to “be good” on Christmas Eve.
“It brings them back to a time when they were kids,” Brant said. “A time of innocence. A time of hope.”
Donations to Santa’s Gift can be made at www.santasgift.com.