RMH

As Amy Weight reflects on her family’s time living at Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) Toronto, she becomes emotional imagining what their experience with serious illness would’ve looked like if her two children hadn’t been able to stay together.

“For them, it would’ve been like going through the hardest thing in the entire world without being able to see your best friend.”

Locklin, 5, and Rowan, 3, truly are best friends. They play imagination games together that no one else can understand. Amy has to give Rowan a multi-vitamin every day so she can take pills just like her big brother. Even their fights only last about two minutes before they apologize, say “I love you” and give each other a kiss.

“There are certain feelings they’ll only confide in each other,” says Amy. “My husband and I learn a lot about our kids overhearing their conversations as they fall asleep.”

Over the last 10 months, Rowan has been by her big brother’s side as he’s endured chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and other types of treatment to fight a rare blood disorder. Like his newly returning strawberry blonde hair, Locklin has made slow but positive progress. Doctors think he’ll be ready to go home to Peterborough, ON in September.

Though the Weights hope to return to RMHC Toronto during Locklin’s future treatments, they’re feeling bittersweet about their departure. They’ve celebrated many family milestones here: Rowan was potty trained and Locklin lost his first tooth. More significantly, because of Locklin’s compromised immune system, he and Rowan will have to be heavily isolated from the outside world once they return home.

“Living at the House gives my kids a social life they can’t have anywhere else,” Amy says.

At RMHC Toronto, if Locklin and Rowan want to go see a movie, they can go downstairs to the movie theatre. They can play on the playground and not worry about contamination. They can have play dates and run around with their friends at summer camp.

“I don’t take any of that for granted.”

But rather than think of what they’ll miss, the Weights will remember what they’ve gained: months of “normal” family moments during a time that was anything but.

“When my kids grow up and think back to Ronald McDonald House, they won’t remember a bunch of medical drama. They’ll remember all the amazing fun they had there and how special it was that we could be together."