So even though my original Kobe Bryant/Make-A-Wish Foundation column back in March was largely about Cody Thorington, he and his family didn’t see the article. I thought Make-A-Wish would get it to them, but when I talked to Cody’s relatives last week before writing what was an even more emotional follow-up column that appears in the Wednesday newspaper, I had to apologize for them not being sent the first column.
Them not getting the first column means that Cody never saw that original piece, which is a shame because it ends with an accent on the fighting spirit that Cody and Kobe shared (and one that is highlighted anew in the new column, which mentions Cody proving his doctors wrong about never walking again).
But it’s funny how things can still work out — and how the first column still wound up coming home to Cody’s father, Billy.
Upon Cody’s death, Patty Thorington, his aunt, did an Internet search for help with an online guest-book obituary for him … and stumbled across my column from March. She printed out the text and photos and later told Billy in a tizzy of excitement what she’d found. And she arranged a day and time that she’d meet him after he was done with work at his house to show him.
But that was all part of a setup to get Billy at his house at a specific time for all his friends and family to gather, too … and for the “Nation of Neighbors Gift Patrol” to show up at his front door with a giant $5,000 check, balloons and a video crew to commemorate a surprise gift for a single father having a very rough go. Billy, who started to get the sense something was up when his mom and dad showed up at his place, said it wound up being quite a happy day at a time when it’s tough for happy days to happen under any circumstances.
And although Billy didn’t say much about it except insisting all that mattered was that he saw my original column eventually, Patty said the timing was actually right. After the gift check had come with all its excitement, Billy got around to reading the column about his son meeting Bryant — and saw the smiles in the photos and remembered something really great that happened to his son.
I’m glad to say that the $5,000 check wasn’t the only meaningful thing that came into Billy’s life that day.
“The timing of it turned out to be really good, I think,” Patty said. She paused for a moment, thinking of Billy that day. Then she said very softly and simply: “It really meant a lot to him when he did see it.”
