I Cried All the Way Home - Father Christmas Shares Heartbreaking Story of How He Fulfilled a Boy's Final Wish (Photos)

Eric Schmitt-Matzen, a professional Father Christmas 

A Terminally ill boy has died in the arms of a Father Christmas who granted him his heart-breaking final wish.

Eric Schmitt-Matzen, a 60-year-old professionally trained Santa Claus, was called to a hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee, after receiving a desperate phone call from a nurse about a seriously sick five-year-old.

The youngster, whose name and condition have not been identified, wanted to see Santa for a final time before he passed away.


Eric, who was born on Saint Nicholas Day, rushed to the institution’s Intensive Care Unit to see the boy, while his family watched the tear-jerking encounter through a window.

Eric, a mechanical engineer and president of Packing Seals and Engineering told the Knoxville News Sentinel: “I’d just gotten home from work that day. “The telephone rang. It was a nurse I know who works at the hospital. She said there was a very sick five-year-old boy who wanted to see Santa Claus.”

Eric told her he needed to go and put on his Santa costume but the nurse explained there wasn’t enough time. He arrived at the unit, in his Father Christmas braces, 15 minutes later and was greeted by the boy’s mum.

“She’d bought a toy from (the TV show) PAW Patrol and wanted me to give it to him,” he said.

“I sized up the situation and told everyone, ‘If you think you’re going to lose it, please leave the room. If I see you crying, I’ll break down and can’t do my job.'”

He entered the room alone. Eric continued: “When I walked in, he was laying there, so weak it looked like he was ready to fall asleep.

“I sat down on his bed and asked, ‘Say, what’s this I hear about you’re gonna miss Christmas? There’s no way you can miss Christmas! Why, you’re my Number One elf!

He looked up and said, ‘I am?’ “I said, ‘Sure!'”

After helping him unwrap his present, the boy asked Eric a heart-breaking question. ‘They say I’m gonna die. How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?’

“‘I said, ‘Can you do me a big favour? When you get there, you tell ’em you’re Santa’s Number One elf, and I know they’ll let you in. I wrapped my arms around him. Before I could say anything, he died right there. I let him stay, just kept hugging and holding on to him.”

Eric said the child’s mother ran in screaming “No, no, not yet!” and he left the hospital as “fast as he could”. “I cried all the way home. I was crying so hard, I had a tough time seeing good enough to drive,” he said.

He said he feared the gut-wrenching experience would mean he would “never be able to play the part again”.


-Daily Sun UK