Grady Higgins

ghiggins@greatfallstribune.com

Young Daisy Hader has had a trying year, receiving treatment for respiratory failure at the Seattle Children’s Hospital since January.

The 8-year-old daughter of Great Falls residents Lolly and Justin Hader, Daisy has undergone constant tests to find the underlying cause of her illness, and has been intubated, a process in which a tube in inserted in the windpipe to aid breathing, making it difficult – if not impossible – for her to speak.

But on Monday, Daisy’s reaction spoke volumes when she was paid a visit from a special guest in Russell Wilson, the Pro Bowl quarterback from the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.

“As soon as he came in, she knew exactly who he was,” Lolly said.

With Lolly reading her lips, Daisy conversed with Wilson on topics varying from football, to the Super Bowl champion signal-caller’s appearance on the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards, in which he received the signature slime bath and dressed up as a grandmother in a sketch, bringing a smile to her face as well as laughter when he did his “grandma voice,” Lolly said.

Daisy also pointed out to Wilson her devotion to the Green Bay Packers – something she picked up from her aunt Polly – in particular linebacker Clay Matthews, who appeared in one of her favorite films, “Pitch Perfect 2.”

Wilson didn’t take offense, as noted in his Facebook post about the encounter with Daisy, posting: “Daisy lights up the room … She also loves Clay Matthews … Maybe I need to grow my hair back out.” (Matthews is known for long hair that hangs far out the back of his helmet.)

The visit from Wilson meant a great deal to Daisy and the family, Lolly said, serving as a positive distraction to what can be some very tough days.

“He was fantastic,” Lolly said. “He was genuinely kind and caring. You could tell he’s not there for himself, but for the kids.”

Although the visit from Wilson brought some added joy into Daisy’s day, the youngster isn’t short of enthusiasm despite her serious health issues, Lolly said.

“She is a character,” Lolly said. “She loves to paint and loves Batman and Robin and My Little Pony. She’s just a well-rounded character and is super funny.”

Daisy is also quite the trickster, her mother said, even pranking doctors with the game “Bamboozled,” in which you give someone a bad-tasting jellybean, as the hospital staff was setting up for a new round of tests Friday.

“She thought that was pretty funny,” Lolly said. “She’ll give you a thumbs up if she thinks it’s funny so she was laughing. We just try to do some things to try and keep her mind off of the hard things that are going on.”

Times have been understandably tough for the Hader family of late, as Daisy has been moved back to the ICU recently with more tests being done to determine whether the cause of her lung failure is a neuromuscular or mitochondrial disease.

“It’s been hard on her to come back to the ICU,” her mother said. “We’ve only been here in the ICU for about a week from the medical floor that we spent a lot of months on and she ended up having really high CO2 levels so they had to intubate her, which has been the hardest because she really can’t talk and eat or drink. It’s really hard to not be able to tell her when it’s going to come out.”

The support of Great Falls and the surrounding communities has been overwhelming, Lolly said.

“It’s heartwarming,” Lolly said of the support her family has received. “There’s a lot of great people in Great Falls and the surrounding area and even out-of-state people who have donated stuff to us on GoFundMe. There’s people offering to mow our lawn, get our mail … when it rained really badly they sucked water out of our basement … so people have been helping in so many ways since we can’t be there. It really is heartwarming that people we aren’t even related to or aren’t friends are so generous.”

A GoFundMe account for Daisy has reached north of $18,000, nearly reaching the $20,000 goal to support the family as Lolly and Justin have been unable to work in order to be with their daughter full-time in Seattle.

More will be hopefully be known on Daisy’s prognosis in the coming weeks, Lolly said, but she doesn’t doubt the fight and spirit her daughter has.

“(Daisy) is pretty incredible,” she said.

Another area youngster in Calvin Diekhans also received a visit from Wilson last year around this time when the then 3-year-old was being treated for a form of leukemia at the Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Now, almost a year later, Calvin is considered in remission, according to his father, Luke, the former Geraldine prep standout who lives near Power with his wife Kelsy (Burgmaier), who played collegiate hoops at Montana State-Northern, as well as Calvin, daughter Annie and son Ben.

“It’s simply amazing,” Luke said. “(Calvin) purely acts like a 4-year-old now. He’s almost got all of his energy back and doing things that he should be doing and we’re very thankful for that. He’s a little spit-fire, we’ll put it that way.”

Luke said the opportunity to meet Wilson as well as several WNBA basketball players at the hospital was a welcome distraction in a trying time for the family.

“When we were able to meet Russell Wilson it was just happenstance basically,” Luke said. “We were in the hospital and the nurses let us know that somebody famous was coming around. We just got a minute or two in the hallway basically, but what he does for the little Hader girl and spends 10-15 minutes in their room, I think that’s pretty amazing for people like that to take time out of their day.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/sports/2015/09/17/many-rally-help-family-year-old-cancer/72376820/

“There were also WNBA players that we had a chance to meet. It’s just a revolving door (at the Children’s Hospital) and it gives people like ourselves who are going through that a moment to not have to think about what’s going on and you can think about something different. Just the few minutes to get to talk to them it can be a nice change of pace.”

An improving bill of health for Calvin has allowed the Diekhans to stick around home for the most part, only having to travel to Seattle for a day or so every few months rather than the extended stays on the West Coast.

Similar to the Haders, Luke said he and Kelsy were very grateful for the generosity shown from the surrounding area in their time of need.

“We were simply amazed with the amount of support that the people had for us,” Luke said. “It was an amazing fundraiser (for Calvin last September at the Civic Center) with the communities that were involved in Great Falls, Highwood, Power, Geraldine and Fort Benton and all over central Montana.”

After some scary times for Calvin and the family, the year that has followed has been a very positive one for the Diekhans as Calvin’s health has continued to improve, welcoming Ben into the family nearly 11 months ago while Annie looks forward to first grade this school year.

“It’s been an amazing year for our family and a lot of fun,” Luke said. “It’s amazing how fast it went. It’s been great to have the support all the way around.”