*Heaven on Earth*
16 years ago, after a lifetime of hearing about E.C. Week from her parents and aunt, Brady's mom traveled down the dirt road that leads to Camp Fatima for the very first time. The friendships created and the love experienced since then cannot be described justly to someone who has not spent a week at this "little piece of heaven on earth" as some have described it.
Tucked away in the woods on the edge of Lake Suncook in Gilmanton Iron Works NH, E.C. Week is really another world full of touching moments and incredible people. Volunteers from all walks of life come together to create a perfect week for campers who have cognitive or physical disabilites. An accountant may be paired with a teenager with Downs Syndrome. A pharmacist may spend the week with a senior citizen with Cerebral Palsy. A firefighter may make a new best friend who has Autism. Although counselors and campers only meet on Sunday morning, by Monday it is as if that special camper has always been in your life. Whether campers run from the rifle range to the beach and boats or cruise around in a wheelchair from arts and crafts to the stables, camp is for the campers and no matter the disability all activities are accessible to everyone. Meals are a shared time made special by the attentive teenage waiters who scurry around tirelessly to make sure everyone gets what they need, energetic songs that get everyone up and clapping and the kitchen crew who will do anything to put a smile on a camper's face. Evenings are filled with special program plays, open-mic opportunities for brave campers and campfires with more singing and s'mores. The week is filled with enough love and life lessons to get you through the rest of the year until it is time to drive back down the camp road again.
Last year, as a 6 week old, Brady attended E.C. Week visitors' day with his mama, auntie and cousins. He watched his cousins jet across the lake in a speed boat, hung out with the Condos girls who made him an honorary Condos boy, appreciated the enthusiasm of the high energy parade and danced the afternoon away under the sprinkler. Brady got hugs from campers who couldnt resist a baby and met old friends that have become an important part of his mom's life over the years. He relaxed over a picnic lunch and listened to his mama and her friends excitedly plan the day he would come back to experience the whole week as a teenage waiter. Maybe he would be "waiter of the week." Coincidentally, this was the day of Brady's very first smile.
This year Brady again attended E.C. Week's visitors' day this past Tuesday with an even bigger entourage. And this year again his family and Fatima friends talked excitedly about the day that Brady would come back to experience the whole week at camp. He proudly wore a little badge planning for 2024 when he'll be nine and the perfect age to wheel into his very own cabin to pick out his bunk where he'll sleep below his counselor and best friend for the week. Campers came up to Brady singing the praises of such a cute little one. They asked about his abilities, asked if he was sick or if he'd be okay, they asked about his trach and g-tube, they said "God bless the little guy." In this magical world where differences don't disappear but, even better, are celebrated, they wanted to care for and love Brady immediately.
The first time his mom said it, Brady had been in the icu for about a week. It has been said many times since then. Brady Robert was always destined to be a part of the Fatima family. The only thing that has changed since the first time he ventured down the camp road is that someday Brady will get to experience E.C. Week in a way that his family never has. He would have been an incredible waiter. But he will be an even more special camper.
