KING'S POINT, N.L. — These days, when Nikita Toms hears a knock on the front door of her King’s Point home, it usually means one of two things.
The first could be the courier dropping off a Christmas gift. The second is another courier delivering a piece of her four-year-old daughter Peyton’s Make-A-Wish bedroom makeover.
Sometimes, the delivery could involve both. When that happens, Nikita is always sure to separate gifts from makeover items.
Either way, they’re equally welcomed by the youngest Toms.
“It’s exciting to her,” said Nikita.
Pieces for the bedroom renovation have been coming for the past month.
The pandemic has meant a shift in the way Make-A-Wish Canada does things, meaning some "wishes have been reimagined."
The makeover includes a new bedroom set, the repainting of walls with a giant rainbow — Peyton’s aunt and uncle are painting her room — and other upgrades.
Make-A-Wish Canada breaks wishes down into three categories — travel wishes, celebrity wishes and item wishes.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still going strong, the travel and celebrity wish categories became impossible to fulfill.
Some of the children making those wishes chose to wait until they could travel again to make them happen, while others switched their wishes to item wishes.
“Some of the wishes have been reimagined,” said Dave Walsh, development co-ordinator with Make-A-Wish Canada in St. John’s.
The pandemic has meant a shift in the way Make-A-Wish Canada does things. Normally, the foundation would have a team that would assemble and makeover a gift like Peyton’s.
However, for safety reasons, the foundation has been sending the items to the family and having them assemble it themselves.
“We’ve been forced to do things at a distance,” said Walsh.
in addition to Peyton’s, Make-A-Wish Canada is fulfilling three other wishes in the province. They are all video game-related and all are currently receiving pieces of their gifts.
“It’s kind of nice, too,” said Walsh. “They feel like Christmas wishes.”
Peyton had originally wished to visit Disneyland, but that wasn’t possible under current conditions.
With travel a no-go, she gave it some thought and decided on the bedroom makeover, with a particular emphasis on two things.
“She wanted anything to do with rainbows and unicorns,” said Nikita.
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⭐Receive pledges for every bulb on your tree ($1 per bulb)
🎄 tree lighting on December 5th, 2020
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in February of 2018, Peyton finished two years of chemotherapy to shrink a benign tumour on her jaw that had grown to the size of a baseball.
Her parents — Nikita and Jake — marvel at her strength their daughter displayed as she underwent three chemo sessions a month for a total of 72 treatments over the two years.
“She was a lot stronger than we were,” said Nikita.
Seeing the bedroom slowly come together with the help of the family has been joyous for her parents and, obviously, for Peyton. As pieces of the room continue to trickle in, the family hopes to have everything assembled in the next couple of weeks.
“(Peyton) well deserves it,” said Nikita.
Nicholas Mercer is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering central Newfoundland for SaltWire Network.
