Make-A-Wish recipients and workers. What were some wishes you had to say no to? Make-A-Wish

Wish Granter here, and I have to say it is the ultimate sadness when we have to stop the process

because a non-custodial parent won't sign the paperwork. It's happened far too often. Usually the

wishes we had to say no to were from the kids' family members. There was always some uncle, grandma,

cousin, sibling or parent who wanted to hijack the kid's family members. There was always some uncle, grandma, cousin, sibling,

or parent who wanted to hijack the kid's wish. A classmate of mine, now passed, got a meet and

greet with Sammy Sosa. The understanding from the make-a-wish people was that Sammy would sign

autographs and sit with the family for a while. Now, this kid was all about Sammy. He had his

jerseys, loved Sammy's little leaps after home runs,

and if I recall correctly, even was big into Pepsi because of Sammy too. When the day came,

Sammy showed up late. He didn't respond when the family greeted him. It was described as a

soul in silence. Signed a glove and then walked away. My classmates started crying once it was clear

Sammy was not going to come back. Right when the parents were about to leave, another

baseball player named Corey Patterson, saw my classmate, came up, signed everything they had,

and talked and joked around with the family for over a half hour. Corey became my

classmate's favorite player that day, and I think he lived perhaps a year after that moment.

At his funeral, my classmates' picture with Corey was one of the prominent pictures.

That moment and day truly, truly meant the world to him. He was around 10 to 11, if I recall correctly.

To this day, I'm unsure if someone from Make-A-Wish found Corey or if the moment was as spontaneous as it was described to me, but no matter what, Corey will always have a special place in my heart because of that story. I, of course, was not there,

and I'm not a primary source for Sammy's interactions with my classmate, but I know and trust

the family. One thing that a couple of Anans have pointed out that I think is worth mentioning

is that it seems unlikely that Make a Wish would organize a meet-and-greet with Sammy Sosa, gently suggesting I was misremembering

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