Flood of photos overwhelms family of Edmonton mall Santa in intensive care
The family of an ailing Edmonton mall Santa is overwhelmed after a Facebook post asking the public for pictures of the man with their children has gone viral.
On Wednesday morning, Nicole Hawley posted on Facebook that her 68-year-old grandfather, Cecil Hawley, is in intensive care and his prognosis isn't good.
She asked people to send pictures of Cecil dressed as the Londonderry Mall Santa with their children.
More than 24 hours later, the post had gone viral with close to 1,300 shares, and close to 900 comments. Attached to the comments were hundreds of photos of Cecil posing with kids in his red suit and bushy white beard.
"[I was] just hoping for maybe a few photos," said Nicole on Thursday. "I know it's a big thing to ask complete strangers to send pictures of their children to a stranger. So I wasn't expecting much of a reply."
Cecil and his wife Dana Hawley have been posing as Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus at Londonderry Mall for the past five Christmas seasons.
"Words cannot describe how great it feels to have this kind of support from complete strangers," Nicole said.
'Need him this Christmas'
Two months ago, Cecil went into the hospital to get treated for a sore throat. Doctors found an abscess and he had to be put into an induced coma to treat it.
He's conscious now, but has been in the intensive care unit for the past two months.
"He's been feeling pretty down lately," Nicole said. "I thought maybe some of the pictures might cheer him up knowing that there's so many kids out there who miss him, who need him this Christmas — some who have been seeing him since they were infants."
Dana has been overwhelmed by the pictures and messages of support. It's been a pleasant distraction while she makes daily visits to her husband in the hospital, she said.
She's read a few of the messages to him and said they have brought smiles to his face.
"I guess when you smile at one person, it does come back 10 times," Dana said.
"I don't think they even realize how important it has been to me and my family just to see this feedback and know that we have touched somebody over the years. But they have touched us back a million times over."
Dana said she plans to read the messages every day to her husband while he lies in his hospital bed and she hopes he starts to show signs off improvement so he can get back in his big red suit in time for Christmas.
Travis.mcewan@cbc.ca
@Travismcewancbc
