BIG SANDY, Mont. (AP) - At age 5, Henry Merrill wants to be a vulcanologist. Or maybe a gladiator, he said, now that he’s been to the Colosseum in Rome.
As he recounted a recent trip to Italy through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Henry showed a souvenir book that started his fascination with Pompeii, a Roman city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. His grandparents brought the book home after a vacation. It’s now falling apart after Henry carried it for a year, even bringing it to show-and-tell, reported the Great Falls Tribune (https://gftrib.com/2i6A7QK).
For his own souvenirs, Henry brought home a volcanic rock carved into the shape of Mount Vesuvius and a gladiator’s helmet.
“There were swords, but I broke them,” he said.
The Merrills thought Make-A-Wish might not go for such a big trip, though Henry kept circling back to it as what he most wanted. His mom Mary suggested Legoland or Disneyland. Henry’s very interested in volcanoes so dad Nathan pitched Hawaii as an alternative, but Henry’s backup choices were going to the moon or meeting a hotel owner.
“Make-A-Wish really surprised us. They really do try to grant the wishes kids wish, and it’s amazing how far they go,” Nathan said.
And, not only did they send Henry and his parents to Italy, but also his three siblings, Thea, 3, Eva Wagoner, 11, and Elijah Wagoner, 14.
Make-A-Wish smoothed the way for the young family, putting them up in an apartment a block from the iconic Trevi Fountain and in a charming hotel in Naples, near Pompeii. The organization found the most experienced guides and provided early access, getting them into the Vatican when only 10 people were in the usually crowded Sistine Chapel, for example.
The Sistine Chapel provided one of the classic duck-out-of-water experiences of the trip. In an effort to keep the kids quiet, Henry’s dad Nathan bought gum, which he distributed as they entered into the chapel, where silence is required. Not knowing Italian, he picked a flavor that tasted appallingly like cough syrup.
“They started screaming and crying about how awful the gum was,” Mary said. “They spit it into my hands as the guards were laughing.”
Gazing into the crater of Mount Vesuvius was a highlight for Henry and Thea, along with Pompeii. Elijah liked the Vatican, where he recognized symbols of Greek and Roman mythology, and Naples, while Eva picked shopping, Rome and the crater as the best parts. Seeing his children explore their first new continent was Nathan’s favorite part.
“The fact that Rome was the most important city for Western civilization made it interesting to see,” Nathan said. “There’s a ton of it excavated. I knew the Colosseum was big, but I didn’t realize how big. And they built it in only eight years.”
Managing six people in a foreign environment was a challenge. They had a few misunderstandings, accidentally splurging on a catch-of-the-day priced by the ounce that was a week’s worth of food and hundreds of dollars. They managed to stay on budget anyway, since the kids gravitated toward pizza usually.
In fact, Make-A-Wish lined up a private lesson on making authentic pizza and tiramisu, with the chef sharing facts about Italian food and culture. Mary said he knew so much about the U.S. election it made her ashamed about her dearth of knowledge about other countries’ politics.
After the lesson, Henry told her, “Well Mom, now when we get in trouble we can just make pizza for you.”
He was keen to try octopus, and it met with his approval. It tasted “like salt,” he said.
The trip “broke the barrier” of thinking international travel was “crazy” with young children, Mary said. “It was a trip of a lifetime at a time of life where we never thought we’d travel.”
The older two siblings helped manage Henry and Thea, who managed to charm every guide though she frazzled her mother at times.
Henry’s cardiologist told Mary that Henry’s rare neurological condition would qualify him for the Make-A-Wish program, but she put that idea out of her mind of a few years. She eventually decided to do the paperwork.
“Hearing your kid qualifies is a tough call to take,” she said.
A nerve to Henry’s heart doesn’t fire correctly, short-circuiting the heart’s electrical system. Now medically corrected, the condition made his heart quiver. It’s not terminal but has been life-threatening. The last-resort medication combination proved successful, but they’ve had to rush him to the hospital at times.
“If something happens, I do think that this trip, as crazy a wish as it was, would somehow offer this little piece of joy for the rest of our lives,” Mary said. “I do hope for the kids, this helps offset years of stress and work. I hope they got a life-changing experience out of it.”
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Information from: Great Falls Tribune, https://www.greatfallstribune.com
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