Great story about my son and Mike Vallely (Mike V.)
Shawshank
Posts: 1,018
I grew up skateboarding, and now my 10 year old son is also big time into it. He's a huge fan of Mike Vallely (who by coincidence is also good friends with Mr. Ben Harper). I was a big fan of Mike V. also when I was a kid, so it's a common interest that my son and I share. You may have seen Mike V. and not even realized it. He was in Paul Blart Mall Cop, he was the skateboarder bad guy in the flick. He was also in The Hangover, towards the end of the movie when they are going down the highway and a guy is hanging out the side of the van throwing them their tuxedo's, that was Mike V. Both of those were from back when he had really long hair. People seem to either like him or hate him.
So anyway, I posted this on a big skate forum that I frequent, and it's such a cool story I thought I'd share it here too.
Topic: Mike Vallely Is The Real Deal
I've been going back and forth in my mind about whether to post this or not. It's kind of personal, but some things are just too good to keep to yourself so I figured what the hell.
My 10 year old son had to have heart surgery this past Thursday to repair a hole between the upper two chambers of his heart. He was born with it, so it's something we've been worried about all his life. Anyway, my son and I skate together alot, and Mike Vallely was the first real skateboarding hero he had. It's always Mike V this, or Mike V that. Suddenly I became even cooler to him when he realized I knew of Mike V also, and that I even had the yellow reissue deck of his hanging on my office wall.
Anyway, my son has always been a great kid. Very considerate, easy going, and generous. Just a great human being. He wanted his heart fixed more than anything in this world, and even during the procedure it was hit or miss as to whether they would be able to do it. However, the doctors were freaking amazing, and they were able to get it repaired. That evening he was starting to feel like his old self, and I was just so proud of him.
I wanted to try and do something special, but I didn't know what I could do. Then it was like a light bulb went off, and I thought to myself, I wonder if I could get Mike V. just to give him a quick phone call.
So I started working on getting the message to him, and feeling kind of awkward about asking for something like that as well. Anyway, about 20 minutes later they took my son to have an x-ray done of his chest. As soon as they left my wife's phone rang..."Hey, this is Mike V. calling for Owen". I nearly crapped. I guess I just didn't expect it to happen, and especially not so fast.
I was bummed and explained they had just taken him to get an x-ray, but I appreciated him taking the time. He asked where we were time zone wise, and if it would be too late if he called back within an hour or two, because he was getting ready to go out with his family and I said no problem at all. He said he would try to call on his cell sooner if he could.
My daughters where there, and they didn't know who I was talking to, especially when I was having to tell them our time zone, so when I hung up and told them who it was they all freaked. So then we were trying to keep it cool, and when my wife got back with my son about 30 minutes later we were all about to burst. I took my wife outside the room and explained what happened. She just lit up, knowing how excited my son would be.
About 20 minutes after my son got back my wife's phone rang again, and this time my older daughters were ready with their iphones. They started videoing as soon as my wife answered, and then she handed the phone to my son.
All he said was...hello?....yes....ya....OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!! This is where it gets extremely hard to put into words. I have never, ever seen my son's face light up like that. It actually brought him to tears. Here he is talking on the phone with his hero, Mike V., and it was a total surprise that just made him extremely emotional. He started crying and I think it was just a combination of everything, the worry we all had leading up to his operation, not knowing if he would be ok, getting through it successfully and then having this happen. It was a lot of emotion for all of us. Everyone in the room had tears streaming down their face. It was definitely one of the most amazing moments in my life.
Anyway, they talked for a few minutes, and I think my poor son was just too stunned to think straight.LOL Mike asked to talk to me, so I got on the phone with him, and you could tell he was just overjoyed from my son's reaction. We talked for about 10 minutes just BS'ing about everything we had been through, and just the situation as a whole, along with some other stuff that I don't recall. It was as if you were talking to an old friend. I guess the word that comes to mind when I think of Mike V. is "genuine", because there were no cameras when all this went down, this wasn't part of a TV show, or for publicity....this was a guy who probably had a million other things to do, who probably took time out from his night out with his family to call and talk to my son.
So as we were wrapping up, he asked to say bye to my son and I walked back into the room where everyone was laughing. I guess my son's heart monitor had set off an alarm at the nurse's station. The machine had this spike from like 90 beats per minute to about 120 (probably about the time my son yelled out OH MY GOD!!!).LOL So I thanked Mike again, over and over, and he just said No Worries...glad I could be a part of it. I handed the phone back to my son, they said their goodbyes, and that was that.
It was already the best day of my life, and that was the perfect way to end it. Just thought I'd share.
So anyway, I posted this on a big skate forum that I frequent, and it's such a cool story I thought I'd share it here too.
Topic: Mike Vallely Is The Real Deal
I've been going back and forth in my mind about whether to post this or not. It's kind of personal, but some things are just too good to keep to yourself so I figured what the hell.
My 10 year old son had to have heart surgery this past Thursday to repair a hole between the upper two chambers of his heart. He was born with it, so it's something we've been worried about all his life. Anyway, my son and I skate together alot, and Mike Vallely was the first real skateboarding hero he had. It's always Mike V this, or Mike V that. Suddenly I became even cooler to him when he realized I knew of Mike V also, and that I even had the yellow reissue deck of his hanging on my office wall.
Anyway, my son has always been a great kid. Very considerate, easy going, and generous. Just a great human being. He wanted his heart fixed more than anything in this world, and even during the procedure it was hit or miss as to whether they would be able to do it. However, the doctors were freaking amazing, and they were able to get it repaired. That evening he was starting to feel like his old self, and I was just so proud of him.
I wanted to try and do something special, but I didn't know what I could do. Then it was like a light bulb went off, and I thought to myself, I wonder if I could get Mike V. just to give him a quick phone call.
So I started working on getting the message to him, and feeling kind of awkward about asking for something like that as well. Anyway, about 20 minutes later they took my son to have an x-ray done of his chest. As soon as they left my wife's phone rang..."Hey, this is Mike V. calling for Owen". I nearly crapped. I guess I just didn't expect it to happen, and especially not so fast.
I was bummed and explained they had just taken him to get an x-ray, but I appreciated him taking the time. He asked where we were time zone wise, and if it would be too late if he called back within an hour or two, because he was getting ready to go out with his family and I said no problem at all. He said he would try to call on his cell sooner if he could.
My daughters where there, and they didn't know who I was talking to, especially when I was having to tell them our time zone, so when I hung up and told them who it was they all freaked. So then we were trying to keep it cool, and when my wife got back with my son about 30 minutes later we were all about to burst. I took my wife outside the room and explained what happened. She just lit up, knowing how excited my son would be.
About 20 minutes after my son got back my wife's phone rang again, and this time my older daughters were ready with their iphones. They started videoing as soon as my wife answered, and then she handed the phone to my son.
All he said was...hello?....yes....ya....OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!! This is where it gets extremely hard to put into words. I have never, ever seen my son's face light up like that. It actually brought him to tears. Here he is talking on the phone with his hero, Mike V., and it was a total surprise that just made him extremely emotional. He started crying and I think it was just a combination of everything, the worry we all had leading up to his operation, not knowing if he would be ok, getting through it successfully and then having this happen. It was a lot of emotion for all of us. Everyone in the room had tears streaming down their face. It was definitely one of the most amazing moments in my life.
Anyway, they talked for a few minutes, and I think my poor son was just too stunned to think straight.LOL Mike asked to talk to me, so I got on the phone with him, and you could tell he was just overjoyed from my son's reaction. We talked for about 10 minutes just BS'ing about everything we had been through, and just the situation as a whole, along with some other stuff that I don't recall. It was as if you were talking to an old friend. I guess the word that comes to mind when I think of Mike V. is "genuine", because there were no cameras when all this went down, this wasn't part of a TV show, or for publicity....this was a guy who probably had a million other things to do, who probably took time out from his night out with his family to call and talk to my son.
So as we were wrapping up, he asked to say bye to my son and I walked back into the room where everyone was laughing. I guess my son's heart monitor had set off an alarm at the nurse's station. The machine had this spike from like 90 beats per minute to about 120 (probably about the time my son yelled out OH MY GOD!!!).LOL So I thanked Mike again, over and over, and he just said No Worries...glad I could be a part of it. I handed the phone back to my son, they said their goodbyes, and that was that.
It was already the best day of my life, and that was the perfect way to end it. Just thought I'd share.
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Comments
what you did will always be the coolest thing in the world to him. Way to go Dad!!
glad your son's surgery went so well.
Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
- Christopher McCandless
The best expression of Love is Time.
The best time to Love is Now.
I'm never as good as when you're there.........
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
Here's a vid of Mike Vallely and you can really see the guy genuinely loves kids. Just a great man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rmBgPTThC4
Here are a couple of screen captures from the video of the call. It is priceless. Everytime I watch it I tear up.
"hello?....yes....ya....OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!"
Just overcome with a flood of emotion
Happy happy happy
***TEARS***
The best expression of Love is Time.
The best time to Love is Now.
I'm never as good as when you're there.........
The best expression of Love is Time.
The best time to Love is Now.
I'm never as good as when you're there.........
Well done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMfmIuJ_dH4
The best expression of Love is Time.
The best time to Love is Now.
I'm never as good as when you're there.........
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
It's so awesome how well these words translated when just reading them and then actually seeing the video. I teared up reading that line, and it's so cool you posted to video to actually be able to see it too.
Such an cool story. It kind of reminded me of that video of that kid that went nuts when he got a Nintendo 64, except with actually feeling, which makes it so much better.
This made my day just reading this, I can't imagine how you and your son felt at this moment. Thanks for sharing this. I'm in and out of the hospital all the time with my youngest son. Maybe I should try lining up a phone call from Harry Potter or Picachu for next time!
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