A “Turbo” Christmas to remember..

(First posted at TheZoo December 3, 2007)

This Christmas story takes place around 11 14 years ago..

At the time, our son Sean was around 10 years old. Sean is a special kind of guy. He was born with Down Syndrome, and he is also hearing impaired. Language has always been really tough for him, and he has always been extremely difficult to understand. His use of expressive language is limited, and he was stubborn enough at that point in his life that he refused to learn more than a handful of signs (ASL).

Sean LOVES Christmas. It has always been his favorite time of the year. He gets more excited about Christmas than all of us in our family put together. We have a line of photos that we put up every year, all with his visits to Santa at the mall, for each and every year. It wouldn’t be Christmas without visiting Santa.

This particular Christmas, the movie “Jingle All The Way” (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) came out. In case you haven’t seen this movie, it is the story of a dad (Schwarzenegger) who is a workaholic and doesn’t spend enough time with his family—always seeming to let them down. His young son, Jamie, is enamored with the “red hot” action figure Turboman, and it’s all he wants for Christmas. Jamie’s mom (Rita Wilson) had asked the dad to pick the doll up for their son weeks before Christmas, but dad was too busy and forgot. She asks him again two days before Christmas if he remembered. He lies, saying he had (intending to do it the following day – Christmas Eve), and to his horror he learns that there are none to be found anywhere. It is a wild ride of a movie as this dad goes nuts trying to lay his hand on a Turboman doll for his son – along with LOTS of other frantic parents.

So.., it comes as no surprise that all Sean wanted for Christmas that year was a Turboman doll. (Sean has always LOVED movies). He wrote “Turboman” everywhere. (His writing skills have always been excellent). He pointed to the calendar, and to Christmas Day (Dec. 25th), and would then hand me pieces of paper with “Turboman” written on them. I began to find his notes in my purse. Then, he started writing SANTA and TURBOMAN together..

I started to have an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach..

As the time came to start my shopping, I went to the toy store in the city and asked about where to find the Turboman doll. The guy looked at me like I had worms crawling out of my ears.. He started laughing and said “good luck with that!”. He told me that NOBODY had Turboman dolls anywhere. They had run out weeks before. I started to panic..

You see, there was no explaining to Sean that “there are NO Turboman dolls available and please pick something else” in a way that he could fully comprehend and appreciate. He only wanted that doll and nothing else. I started looking online. Nothing. Christmas was fast approaching.

Then came the day for our visit to see Santa. We left for the mall, stood in line, and when it was our turn Sean raced up and sat on his lap. He tried telling Santa in his limited language what he wanted, and when Santa clearly wasn’t understanding what he said, Sean reached in his pocket and pulled out a familiar piece of paper with the word “TURBOMAN” written on it, that he had written especially for Santa. With that, Sean also signed T-U-R-B-O-M-A-N. Santa gave him a hug and told him he would do everything he could to get him his beloved Turboman doll.

I was sunk..

I was beginning to feel like I was in that stupid movie. In desperation, I emailed the WalMart company. Actually, I emailed LOTS of companies. No responses from anyone..

Then, one morning I received a phone call. It was a couple of weeks before Christmas. At first I was confused and didn’t understand quite what the person was saying. This person was calling from the corporate office of WalMart on the East Coast somewhere (I live in Oregon), and she said they had been searching everywhere for a Turboman doll for Sean but just couldn’t locate one. They were all very sorry, but the “Turboman” dolls were all gone. “Would Sean like a talking bear instead?” she asked.. Stunned, I thanked her and said that unfortunately he wouldn’t settle for anything else, and there was little I could do about it.

I couldn’t believe a company would go to that kind of trouble—just from an email.

I set about trying to find something else for Sean, all the while trying to deal with his insistence that he would be getting the doll, and his refusal to listen to talk of anything else.

Then, on Christmas Eve morning, I received another call. It was once again from the WalMart corporate office on the East Coast. The woman was speaking

very excitedly, telling me that a gentleman had just walked into her office, that he had managed to locate ONE Turboman doll which he was holding in his arms, and she was preparing to ship it out as we spoke. She apologized for the fact that it wouldn’t get there until after Christmas, but at least Sean would have his Turboman.

I was in a state of total disbelief.. I asked how she wanted me to pay for it, and she said “Oh no, this is a gift from us at WalMart”. “We just wanted Sean to have his doll”. Shock….

So, on Christmas morning, Sean ripped open the wrapping on a box from under the tree that was filled with rocks and a note from Santa–apologizing for not getting his Turboman to him on time, but assuring him it would be coming very soon. We signed “tomorrow” to him. He seemed to understand and accepted it, moving on to open another present.

The following morning the special delivery truck drove up our driveway. Sean started shrieking, accepted the box from the driver, and then raced into the house. We all stood around as he opened the package, his hands shaking. The look on his face as he pulled that doll out of the box was priceless… He wouldn’t let go of it—for months.

There was a card in the box from the staff of the corporate office of WalMart wishing Sean a Merry Christmas. It was simply unbelievable..

Needless to say, Sean still to this day believes in Santa Claus. On some level, I guess I do too…

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