Greta Johnson, 8, didn’t see the mermaids at first. It was her little sister who pointed them out—two fish-tailed women on the beach with a pirate, waving at them.
They were waiting there, a surprise for the leukemia survivor, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“She was actually kind of shy at first,” says Tierney Johnson, Greta’s mother. “But she immediately jumped into talking and we weren’t even there the rest of the time because they had her undivided attention, and they really spoiled her with attention.”
The Make-A-Wish Foundation set up the Johnson family with four nights at The Boca Raton, fit with a mermaid encounter at the beach. That included mermaid tails for the girls and pirate fun for the boys. The Johnson family flew down from Sayre, Pennsylvania and enjoyed sunny days and luxury service from the resort.
“We believe the wishes we grant aren’t just nice, they’re necessary, and Greta’s trip to South Florida is an example of that,” says Norman Wedderburn, president & CEO of Make-A-Wish Southern Florida. “Her family’s battle against leukemia was a long and arduous one, and no doubt taxed each and every one of them, so being together and having nothing more on their minds than having fun and reconnecting with each other is a type of healing we feel uniquely qualified to provide.”
Johnson agrees, saying “the whole family fights together in something like this.” She was pleased to see that Greta’s siblings were included in the fun.
“Honestly the siblings are the ones that get forgotten a lot in the whole cancer thing because there is so much attention, even though it’s not really good attention, put on the child that’s sick. They don’t really understand,” Johnson says.
The trip was also a celebration of being off chemotherapy one-and-a-half years ago; Greta gets regular checkups and the goal is to make it to five years without any recurrences. She was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 4 years old, the week her little sister was born. During her time in the hospital, Johnson remembers how Greta worked on an arts and crafts project where she painted a mermaid, which ended up hanging in the waiting room of the hospital.
At the resort, Johnson says her children enjoyed the water slide lazy river, making new friends on the beach, and ordering sparkling water from the staff. (“They thought it was the best thing ever,” Johnson laughs.)
“Welcoming Greta and bringing her mermaid dreams to life was a profound honor for all of us at The Boca Raton. Moments like these remind us that true luxury lies in the joy we can create and the memories we can help shape,” says Daniel Hostettler, president and CEO of The Boca Raton.
