The real life story of a community coming together to celebrate two months early for a little boy who wouldn’t make it to Christmas has been made into a children’s book by his mother and a Guelph author.
The Boy Who Moved Christmas is an upcoming children’s book that tells the emotional story of Evan Leversage, a seven-year-old boy living with childhood cancer in the small community of St. George in nearby Brant County.
In 2015, Evan’s doctors gave his mother Nicole Wellwood a prognosis that her son may not make it to Christmas.
Upon hearing that tragic news, the community came together and on Oct. 24 of that year Christmas celebrations came two months early.
The celebration had a parade, full of lights, and artificial snow, which made Evan over the moon excited, said Wellwood. Evan was able to ride in Santa’s sleigh, waving and smiling to onlookers lining the streets.
"It was much like a storybook… it was a fairy tale for (him)," said Wellwood.
A few weeks later, and only a few months before the real Christmas, Evan's five year battle with brain cancer came to a tragic end.
Eric Walters is an award-winning author who was touched by Evan’s story, which was national news at the time.
“The death of a child is a real tragedy, but there is such an inspirational message involved in this, the way that whole community came together for this one boy and the way his mother handled this,” said Walters. “I approached Nicole and said this is what I do for a living and I think there’s a story here.”
With a background as a trained family therapist, Walters was aware that Wellwood was going through the grieving process when he contacted her about working together to bring Evan’s legacy to life on the printed page.
“I wanted to be very sensitive to the story, to Nicole and to her other children,” he said.
The pair worked together on the story and co-authored the book, which will be released in the fall, almost exactly five years since Evan’s death.
"It's an inspirational story, on the uniqueness of that night," said Wellwood, who noted that writing the book with Walters became therapeutic for her.
"The more we got into the book, the more I realized this is bigger than just Evan, this is bigger than just our family, this book is going to help children like Evan,” she said.
In 2003, Walters published the book Run, about Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope. With that project he collaborated closely with the Fox family.
“I was able to look at the way a tragedy has hurt a family so tremendously but what they have done with it has been inspirational,” said Walters.
Like with Fox’s story, Walters wanted to help Wellwood share Evan’s journey and possibly help others going through a similar situation.
“Losing a child is just unbelievable but to continuously open your heart up to tell the story over and over again takes a different kind of bravery,” said Walters.
“She (Wellwood) wants to help people and I think her vulnerability is one of her great strengths, the fact she has been able to open up and be vulnerable and share how this has affected her and the devastation it causes.”
“I had to be careful because I wasn’t just writing a story, I was writing about real people and you want to represent them correctly and be sensitive to the situation, and also you have a mother who has had the greatest tragedy imaginable happen to her,” he added.
Wellwood said the story tackles simple things, like love and the appreciation of the community.
"It's not materialistic, it shows the true meaning of why everyone came together (on that night),” said Wellwood.
With files from KitchenerToday
