Finding Comfort in a Soft Place

Little do we know the significance a gift may have when we give it from our heart to someone important to us.

by Victoria Hipps

This was especially true for the Ecuadorian family who delivered a giant, stuffed, purplish gorilla holding a huge red heart to Russell Hilliard, a seventy-four year old friend who had just undergone surgery. Mr. Hilliard had no clue either as he accepted the gift gracefully, expressing his gratitude for the kind gesture.

The gorilla was placed in a chair in the Hilliards’ living room directly across from where Russell sat during his recovery. Every day the gorilla caught his eye and he pondered what a man of his age was supposed to do with a stuffed toy. This became clearer during visits by his eight-year-old granddaughter, Rachel.

Using her
grandmother’s scarves, Rachel brought the gorilla to life as she tied a
bandana for its head, draped silk around its neck, and cuddled the
stuffed beast in her lap. As Russell watched, he became more aware of
the word “love” written in large letters on the gorilla’s heart and
felt love in his own heart began to bloom for this cloth creature. This
was more than a toy and he gave it a name — Willa the Gorilla.

Now as Willa caught Russell’s eye from across the room, love filled his
heart and he wrote a poem to express his gratitude for friends and the
hope that healing brings. The lines of the poem brought vivid pictures
in the mind of a friend who saw its potential as a children’s book.
Though having no idea how a book should be illustrated, the friend
agreed to take on the project.

Over a period of two years, Willa the Gorilla & Me began to come
alive on paper. The imagination of a child receiving a stuffed gorilla
while facing treatment for cancer became the setting for Willa’s birth.
Willa, a mountain gorilla, moves with the child through the days of a
hospital stay and as with Russell, the child in the story finds comfort
in this soft place.

The bilingual Willa the Gorilla & Me unites two tender subjects:
children with cancer and mountain gorillas facing extinction. The book
is dedicated to those who care for those precious resources on both
fronts.

The Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation lists the following
facts on their website: 46 children are diagnosed with cancer each
school day; by the age of 20, one in 330 children will develop cancer;
within five years of the time of diagnosis, one quarter of the children
will die; and in America cancer still remains the number one disease
killer of children.

Wheeling Jesuit University’s Center for Educational Technologies Class
Room of the Future website offers the following information on the
state of mountain gorillas in the world. “The mountain gorillas are the
rarest of all and are on the verge of extinction. Only about 600 of
these magnificent animals are left in the wild, about 320 in the
Virunga Mountains and another 300 in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
National Park in Uganda. None are found in captivity.” These mountain
gorillas and their habitat are being destroyed by war in the Democratic
Republic of Congo and by those who fail to see the greatness of these
awesome creatures.

The Ecuadorian family has returned to their homeland, but the gift they
carried in their arms that fateful day in 2005 offered their friend an
opportunity to reach beyond his circumstances to a place of hope and
comfort. Willa the Gorilla & Me passes this gift on to its readers
by reminding them how essential their imagination is for vitality and
hope in daily living. It is a book “with a soul” offering the
opportunity to experience healing delight, no matter the age or
situation.

Copies of “Willa the Gorilla & Me” are available at a cost of
$16.95 (NC residents please add 7%) through the publisher, The Story
Words, LLC, PO Box 9366, Asheville, NC 28815, or by calling (828)
400-9785. Copyright 2007.