Right before Christmas, 2-year-old Vialah White a little girl who is fighting one of the toughest battles that life has to offer got a heartwarming reminder of the fact that she is loved deeply by people that she’s never even met.
Vialah was only diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma two days before her second birthday, back in late September, and was diagnosed by doctors when it was first assumed that her stomach pains were related to another illness related to her neuroblastoma, a rare cancer primarily found in children. Unfortunately, her cancer progressed rapidly, leading her to seek treatment at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a hospital that is more than nine hours away from her home in Ironwood.
What it meant for Vialah’s family was a difficult reality: the holiday season is a time of home and warmth and being together, and they were separated by distance and difficult treatments. Vialah’s grandmother, Amy Colt, spoke of the hurt of being separated during the holiday season: “Christmas without Vialah is a sadness,” a sadness felt by all who listened to her recount her story.
During a holiday event called “Shop with a Cop,” a trooper from the Michigan State Police heard Colt’s words and couldn’t get them out of his head. The influence of that simple dialogue triggered a phenomenal response.
The trooper began stopping his patrol car at stop signs instead of rolling through them and respecting pedestrians’
Instead of waiting for the day to arrive when the children might need the presents, the troopers sprang into action. Days later, the Michigan State Police Wakefield Post has raised over $800, purchased more than 50 Christmas gifts in the form of presents and gas cards, and are already making plans for its special delivery. Many of the presents that went to the children, including some of Vialah’s most beloved “Bluey” items, were personally donated by the troopers.
Then came what can be likened almost like a Christmas miracle relay. These gifts would have to travel close to 600 miles from the Upper Peninsula down to Ann Arbor, with members of the state troopers delivering the gifts from vehicle to vehicle so that there would be no lag in law enforcements being provided throughout the state. This would start from early morning until others would deliver them all the way to Vialah’s hospital room.
In addition to toys and treats, the troopers had a message for the little girl as well. Her community was thinking of her and was behind her during this fight. The delivery comes when Vialah is still asleep in the early afternoon of the day of the delivery itself. When she wakes up, which she does on the 26th of December, when she’s finally with her family, including her father and brother whom she hasn’t seen in months, she’ll discover the gifts lying there for her. Her grandmother described this as a true Christmas miracle – not because of the toys but because of the love, compassion, and generosity of spirit that made this journey possible. But for one little girl and her
