South Point boy going to Disney World
Published 12:00 am Monday, November 24, 2003
SOUTH POINT - For 3-year-old Ethan Reeves, hospital trips and surgeries have been a way of life.
Ethan's next trip, however, will be a happier one. Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ethan, his mother and his four sisters will be en route to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. The family will leave Tuesday and return next Sunday.
Ethan was born with a heart condition known as severe epstein's anomaly. He also has a hole in his heart and a dual-chamber pacemaker works 63 percent of the organ. Ethan's condition means that his family is constantly on the road to hospitals in Louisville, Ky., Columbus and Cincinnati.
"We've taken many, many trips to the hospital," said Patricia Payne, Ethan's mother.
While Ethan was in a Kentucky hospital, Patricia met up with a distant relative who told her Ethan was eligible for a Make-A-Wish Foundation grant because his condition was life-threatening. Whether or not a child is eligible, Patricia said, is determined by a physician. The grant was approved.
Payne said she chose Disney World for Ethan because he is a huge fan of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and especially their sidekick, Rabbit. Payne has struggled for a very long time to find him a Rabbit toy and cannot even order one from the Disney store. She hopes she can find the toy there.
Despite his condition, Ethan is an active child, his mother and sisters said. Thursday evening, Ethan ran in circles in the living room, talking loudly with his sisters and throwing his toys in the air. His oldest sister, 19-year-old Erica Martin, said when Ethan wants something he cannot reach such as pictures on the wall, he will throw a toy to do it.
"He's wild," she said. "He's always getting into stuff."
Ethan and his family will stay at Disney's Give the Kids the World Villas, a special place for children such as Ethan, Patricia said. Ethan will have the chance to see the Magic Kingdom, Disney MGM studios, Animal Kingdom, Epcot Center, Sea World, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, the Kennedy Space Center, AMC Movie Theater and many other places of interest, if he wants.
The Disney characters will also tuck Ethan in at night, if he requests.
"At his age, cartoon characters are real to him," Patricia said. "I'm really excited for him. He will get to do things he wouldn't normally get to do."
While his sisters are extremely excited and have their own plans for the trip - particularly riding rollercoasters - the girls are more interested in seeing Ethan happy. Two of his sisters, DeLenna Martin, 15, and Kalah Reeves, 12, said Ethan is thrilled to be riding a "plane, plane" to Disney World.
"He always says, 'Look! A plane, plane,'' Kalah said.
Patricia is especially happy to take this trip because the past four years have been extremely difficult for her and the children. Besides Ethan's illness, the family has weathered divorces and the loss of Patricia's mother.
"These kids really deal with a lot," Patricia said. "You'll never know how good it feels to take everyone up for a week of fun."
According to Erica, it was Ethan who pulled the family together through those hard times.