Bruins star a ‘godsend’ for ill boy

[okarol]

Bruins star a ‘godsend’ for ill boy

Saturday, April 4, 2009 - Updated 4h ago
By Joe Fitzgerald
Boston Herald Columnist

Kim Pasqualucci stood a few feet from her son’s bed at Children’s Hospital, watching a Boston Bruin administer a shot of happiness.

Cole Pasqualucci, 12, whose renal disease has filled the last six years of his life with fatigue and disappointments, had just been wheeled out of the operating room and his family had asked well-wishers to wait before dropping in.

But that did not apply to Patrice Bergeron, the catalyst of the resurgent B’s, whose arrival lifted their heavy hearts.

“When Cole came out of surgery,” Kim recalled, “he opened one eye, saw Patrice, and it was like, ‘Wow, Mom, he’s here!’

“He gives my son something no one else can give him. He gives him a feeling of joy. It seems Cole is smiling all the time they’re together. It brings tears to my eyes because it hurts to see him hurting, knowing I can’t fix the problem. Isn’t that what moms are supposed to do?”

It’s no secret around the Garden that Bergeron, 23, has a soft spot for kids who’ve drawn short straws in life, personally hosting them 21 times a season in Suite 530, which is where the Pasqualuccis watched Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over Tampa Bay.

But Cole’s plight has touched him in a special way.

Before his disease was diagnosed, leading to an unsuccessful transplant in 2005, Cole played youth hockey with the South Shore Seahawks, relishing every minute on the ice.

Now he undergoes dialysis in his home every night, and hockey rinks are just a distant memory.

“He spends part of his day with a tutor and part of it hooked to a machine,” Kim said. “We have learned to live for the moment, never taking life for granted, realizing every day is a gift. All my son wants is to be a normal kid who plays and goes to school.

“Patrice has been like saving grace since the first time he met Cole. He gave him a shirt, then he invited us all to a game, and he’s been in contact with us ever since. I met his mother Silvy in the box one night, and, mother to mother, I could tell she knows exactly how I feel about her son.”

A year ago Bergeron’s own hockey dreams were imperiled by a lethal check that inflicted a season-ending concussion.

“I’ve never seen Cole so upset,” Kim said. “He had me writing letters and sending things to him all year long.

“Though I pray for a miracle every day, I also thank God for the one He’s already given us; Patrice has been a godsend to my son.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/hockey/bruins/view/2009_04_04_Bruins_star_a_%E2%80%98godsend__for_ill_boy/