It makes for long days, but managing to tease out bubbling laughter in the face of the stale hospital air and endless needles makes it all worthwhile.
Joey Maddison – also known as Patches – said he is almost like furniture at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, where he has been volunteering as a clown for nearly 21 years.
When the phone call comes from the hospital, telling Maddison the situation is dire for a child and he is needed to lift spirits, Maddison will drive to Edmonton after his “regular” work as lifeguard and swimming instructor at the Athabasca Landing Pool.
Whether the child is a burn victim, taking cancer treatment or only has a few days left, Maddison will don one of his costumes and try to make life as comfortable as possible for the kids.
Sometimes Maddison will not make the drive back to Athabasca until 3 a.m., and wakes up to do it all again hours later.
“It makes for some long days, but when you see these kids smiling and giggling…it makes it all worthwhile,” Maddison said. “There’s times I’ll leave there and I’ll be bawling, because I wanted to do more.”
When he does leave the hospital, Maddison said a difficult part of the job is never knowing who will still be alive when he returns. Throughout his career, Maddison said he has probably attended over 700 funerals of children he has entertained in the hospital.
The origin of Patches
It was when Maddison himself was lying in a hospital bed recovering after a neck injury he met Stephanie.
The little girl would come creeping into his hospital room in between patient rounds, and would repeatedly jam a beanbag into Maddison’s hands.
Each time Stephanie visited, more children would appear at her side. One time she leaned over Maddison and told him to teach her how to juggle. At this point, Maddison had no experience as a clown.
After he was discharged from the hospital, Maddison made a point to check in on the girl whenever he had a check up. He had no idea what Stephanie was in the hospital for.
It was during one of these visits hospital staff told Maddison the girl had passed away, and she had been fighting cancer for some time.
“’For quite some time and you were keeping her mind occupied, you gave her laughter and joy and we appreciated that’,” Maddison said staff members told him. “From that day on, working at the Stollery I’m like almost furniture there.”
After the birth of Patches – now one of five clown characters that Maddison poses as – Maddison held Stephanie close to his heart. The girl’s dad gifted Maddison with a heart from her favourite blanket, and he said he had his aunt sew it onto the inside of his first costume, just above his heart.
On the job
While clowning around with kids staying in the Stollery hospital, Maddison said he gets quite attached to the kids, and they to him.
Sometimes they tell him secrets – including the boy who told Maddison he was in the hospital because he had not been eating his broccoli, but feeding it to the dog.
But the job wears on Maddison.
“As I’m driving back and I still see the kid in the bed with the IVs going in them, some of them with respirators on, and some of them where its every move they make they’re in tears,” Maddison said. “You don’t want to remember those memories.”
Instead he said he focuses on the happy moments, such as snagging ice cream from the staff room down the hall with a kid, or making another child smile “cheek to check” while getting a needle in their arm, hardly noticing.
In addition to volunteering at the Stollery, Maddison is a usual face at local events in Athabasca, such as the Gutsy Walk.
Gusty Walk organizer Lee Deren said Maddison brings Maddison brings a strong sense of fun and excitements, and kids love having him around, “no matter what he does.”
She added it is “heartwarming,” the work Maddison does at the Stollery. As a parent, Deren said it would be extremely challenging to watch your child go through something requiring a stay at the Stollery, and simple things such as a smile are precious.
“I think it’s just bringing it back to the simple and important things in life, just seeing that happiness in your kids face, and a simple smile means so much to a parent,” she said.
While the work can be hard, Maddison said his work at the Stollery allows him to “see the world for the first time.”
“Just getting that opportunity to see the world through their (patients’) eyes, because that’s something that … like I said I’m 41 years old and I see the world for the first time lots,” he said. “It’s insightful; it’s inspiring.”
