Chance and I met Ashton for the first time a little over three weeks ago on the pediatrics floor at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Ashton was a patient with his parents visiting in the room when Chance and I made our initial visit. They thoroughly loved Chance.  He was able to walk in next to the bed and Ashton was able to pet him. We visited with the family for a little while and brought a lot of smiles to their faces.

Ashton was released fairly quickly after that visit, and we thought everything was OK.

Then about 2 weeks ago,  we were back visiting the hospital and the pediatrics floor; Ashton was back and he was in a restricted room. We weren’t able to go in and see him but we could visit him from the hallway where he could see Chance and we could talk to him from the hall. We visited Ashton probably two to three times a week for those next two weeks. Later in the month, we were able to walk with Ashton up and down the hallway for his exercise. Yesterday we went back and were able to walk with him a second time.

He’s being released today.

The friendship between Chance and Ashton is just amazing. Ashton was able to look forward to Chance’s visits and talk to him through the doorway and then finally get to pet and walk with him.

His mom told me that the first thing Ashton said when his restriction was lifted was, “Now I can pet Chance.” It just makes your heart sing!

Story submitted by Marcia and Chance Pearce