A Pilgrimage to Lambeau Field

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I'd be heading to Wisconsin with my three boys to see the Packers play at Lambeau Field. Dreams do come true. There are heroes in this world, too. Brett Favre, through his foundation, made my son's dream come true. Brett Favre is a hero and a wonderful role model.

From the time he was two and a half years old, my son Matthew has dreamed of being a Green Bay Packer. Matthew's room has become a shrine to Green Bay over the years. Just about every inch of his room is covered! I remember one day when he was almost five years old. He ran out into the snow with nothing but his underwear on. I yelled at him to get back inside and he screamed back, "I'm just practicing for when I become a Green Bay Packer! I've got to get used to the cold!" At that moment, I knew I was in trouble. As he grew up, he began to wear only his number four jersey he'd received as a Christmas present. He read an article about a boy who wore his jersey for some record breaking amount of time, and wanted to be like him. Eventually, his wardrobe grew into a collection of several Green Bay shirts he could chose from on a daily basis.

Our road to Green Bay was an unusual one, to be sure. You see, Matthew has two brothers with a rare, genetic bone marrow failure syndrome called Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (SDS). While Matthew is healthy, his life is affected by his brothers having SDS. Both of his brothers have received wishes from Make-A-Wish because of the life-threatening nature of the disease they have. Matthew has endured the countless trips to the hospital with his brothers, the procedures and hours spent waiting in a tiny room while his brothers receive their treatments. He rarely complains. When the stress of the medical world around us gets the best of us, we always go to our "Happy Place". We sit and allow our minds to drift away to Lambeau field. Slowly, these thoughts drown out the noises of the hospital around us. Our minds carry us to the big game. The Packers need one touchdown to win, Favre steps back, throws a pass and Donald Driver takes it into the end zone. Touchdown! The Packers win the game and the crowd goes wild! Our "Happy Place" has given us a break from medical stress many times over the years.

In the summer of 2005, eleven year old Matthew continued to tell us his dream was to see the Packers play at Lambeau field. Knowing that we could never fulfill that dream, we set out to do the next best thing. We tried to get tickets to a Packers game close to home. We tried to get tickets to the Panthers game, but they sold out in what seemed an instant. We looked on-line and people were reselling them at too high a price for us. We tried to get tickets in towns that were further away, all to no avail. We wanted to get two tickets, one for Matthew and one for Dad....but this small dream slipped from our grasp.

In October 2005, while we were getting ready to watch the Panthers' game, I overheard Matthew telling his brothers that he really wished he could get tickets to a Packers game for Christmas. That is the moment I decided to write a letter to the Green Bay Packers. I received a reply in the mail telling me that I should call some number and try to purchase tickets. I tried, and the tickets were still a bit out of our price range. If we only had fewer medical bills!

The next step was writing to the Brett Favre Fourward Foundation. I wanted to do what I could to make Matthew's dream come true. I sent the letter out and never expected to receive a reply. I figured that they must get hundreds of people asking for tickets and just assumed the chances of ever hearing anything were slim.

Sometime in February 2006, Beth called from the foundation. I was so utterly shocked to read, "Brett Favre 4WA" on the caller ID that I was unable to think clearly. Beth told me that they had received my letter and they really wanted to give Matthew tickets to a game. She went on to explain that they would not know how many tickets they would be getting until they knew if Brett Favre was going to retire or not. I was told that Mr. Favre donates his tickets to his foundation and if he wasn't playing, they would not be getting as many tickets.

The entire time all of this was going on, my husband and I never said anything to Matthew about this. Matthew didn't even know I had written a letter to the foundation. We Didn't want to tell him, just in case it never came to fruition. We watched the news on ESPN closely. We listened as the announcers debated whether or not Mr. Favre was going to retire....never before had we been so interested. Through all of the speculation and rumors, we prayed that Brett Favre would stay with the Packers. Time flew by and we were still visiting our "Happy Place" on a regular basis.

As summer drew to an end, I started to wonder if we'd hear back from the foundation. About the time I thought it wasn't going to be a reality, Beth called to say that they were going to give Matthew tickets. We still didn't tell him. It was becoming harder to keep this secret, especially on bad medical days! Then, tens days before the Packers played the Bears that season, I got a call from Beth. She asked me if we could make it on September 10^th to the game at Lambeau field. I said , "Yes!" and our adventure began.

We were lucky to have friends who had moved to Green Bay several years earlier. I called to ask a favor-- and it was granted. They graciously opened up their home to us, the crazy cheeseheads from North Carolina. Once I got the plans laid out, we gathered Sean and Joseph in our room to let them in on the secret. Then we called Matthew in....when he opened up the door we yelled, "Surprise! You're going to go to Lambeau Field and see the Packers play!" I'll never forget that moment. He was filled with joy beyond compare.

We headed out to Green Bay, the boys and me. Dad had to work, so he was unable to come along. As we made our way to Green bay, I kept wondering if it could be true. Would there be tickets waiting for us at the will call window? Beth had made sure to tell me that these were Brett Favre's personal tickets and asked me to let her know if we were not going to make it to the game so that they could be used by someone else. We drove for almost sixteen hours over two days and finally made it to Green Bay.

Game day arrived and we were so excited. I was a bit worried that we might get to the window to find that there really were no tickets. I still couldn't believe it was really happening. We parked near the stadium and made our way to the will call line. Joseph asked on the way, "Mom, why are all these people barbequing and stuff out here? I mean, why are they out here if they don't have tickets to get into the game?" I replied, "They are Packers fans, that's what Packers fans do." The line moved pretty quickly. As we stood there, I prayed the tickets were really at the window. The man in front of me went up to the window, presented his drivers license and was told, "I'm sorry, we don't have any tickets for you." My heart stopped. I said an extra prayer as I handed over my license and held my breath as the man looked for our tickets. The man came to the window and handed me the tickets through the little hole. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, gathered the boys and we headed into the atrium, one step closer to our "Happy Place".

I didn't even look at the envelope until we made our way into the building. Once inside, I read what was written, " Tickets for: Patty Curran. Tickets left by: Brett Favre. Will Call." Wow. This really was happening. The first thing Matthew wanted to do was to buy a new cheesehead, as his old one was literally falling apart. We splurged and bought each of the boys a new cheesehead. We had managed to convert Sean and Joseph into Packers fans on the drive up and they needed cheeseheads to celebrate their crossing over from the dark side. Sean was a 49ers fan, while Joseph was a Raiders fan. This was a huge day for them and their conversion was certainly worthy of celebration!

We made our way to our seats right on the fifty yard line! We could see the entire Packers team on the sidelines. We were REALLY in our "Happy Place". Lambeau filed on game day is an amazing, fun-filled exciting place. We soaked in everything we could, the sights, the smells and the incredible sounds. We watched as the Packers warmed up and were filled with joyful anticipation of the game to come.

We watched Brett Favre's first shut out game. Some would say that it was a depressing. We were even teased with laughter upon our return home, "You drove that far to see Brett Favre get shut out?" Those people missed out on the point. It wasn't depressing! Lambeau Field is a Happy Place, win or lose. Our trip to Green bay wasn't just about a football game. It was about dreams coming true, miracles and heroes. It was a celebration of life. Having two children with a life-threatening illness, we know that winning isn't everything. Matthew's dream came true, and in our world, that is a true miracle.

As we left Lambeau field that day, Matthew said, "Mom, that was awesome! I got to see Brett Favre throw passes to Donald Driver." My youngest son asked, "Mom, why are all of these people still happy and dancing around out here when the Packers lost?" I said, "They are Packers fans, that's what Packers fans do." While the game did not play out like our many jaunts to Lambeau Field in our minds, it was still an incredible experience. An experience that has carried us through another stressful year of medical treatments and made our mind trips to our "Happy Place" more real than they have ever been. The Packers may have lost the game that day, Favre may have been shut out for the first time, but on that day, Mr. Favre did more for us than winning a football game could have ever done. Brett Favre made my son's dream come true.