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Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

 

Anyone who knows my son, Landon, knows he loves basketball — or “hoops” as he calls it.

Little by little he has improved his skills, and most of the time if he even catches a glimpse of a basketball hoop he wants to play.

Though he still shoots underhanded, in the last six months has been finding great success and would make basket after basket. A few weeks ago, we noticed he was reverting back to some of the things he was doing when he first started playing basketball. It was sad to see, knowing how much progress he had made.

We’ve noticed in the past that sometimes he temporarily loses some knowledge or skills when his seizures have an uptick and that sometimes even the amount of sunlight can trigger problems for him.

Though his seizures have been pretty well controlled lately, the sun has been out in full force and sometimes causes problems for his light-sensitivity and capabilities of performing tasks outdoors.

On Sunday afternoon, as we were taking a break from a ride around town, we stopped at Lakeview Park for a chance for Landon to get out some of his energy at the playground.

After a few minutes at the park, a young man pulled up, got out of his car and with a basketball in tow walked over to the basketball hoops next to the playground.

Landon was quick to see this new person, who was ready to play his favorite sport, and he let out a shriek of excitement and ran over to the court.

Over the next 30 minutes or so, we found a patient young man probably in his late teens or early 20s, who was willing to share his basketball and his time with our eager 8-year-old. 

As the nearby tree cast a shadow on one side of the court, we saw Landon regain his confidence in his basketball skills, as little by little he got closer and closer to making a basket, until he eventually starting making a couple baskets in a row. He would shout with joy as he made a basket and run over for a high-five.

I believe it was a combination of the shade over the basketball hoop at that time and the young man’s patience and encouragement that made all the difference in helping Landon realize again that he could do whatever he set his mind to.

We played again in our basketball hoop later in the evening after the driveway was no longer in the sun and found that Landon’s refound confidence continued. I was pleased to see he was doing much better.

As he said his nightly prayers before he went to bed, Landon recalled the minutes at the basketball hoop with “his boy,” as he lovingly called him.

It was the highlight of his day.

To the young man who took time out to make my 8-year-old’s day a great one: Thank you.

It was a great reminder of how even a few small minutes can impact others for good if we look for opportunities to make a difference.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.