When Tiana Bishop turned 12, she made a wish — a very specific wish.
Though the young cancer patient would pass away just two weeks later, she wanted to make sure her friends at the hospital had Christmas gifts and some really good Christmas food.
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Tiana asked that family members bring gift cards when they came over for her birthday so that she and her mom could go buy presents. A radio show host in their hometown of Defiance heard about her wish and told his listeners.
“We started getting hundreds of pieces of mail with gift cards in them,” her mother, Patty Bishop, recalled. “Tiana turned 12 on Nov. 5, and her heavenly birthday was Nov. 20, and we delivered her gifts on Dec. 20.”
That was in 2011. On Friday, Mrs. Bishop and her husband, Pat, — with the help of that radio show host, relatives, friends, and, of course, Santa Claus — again made the annual trip to Mercy Children’s and ProMedica Toledo Children’s Hospital, loaded down with gifts from Tiana.
“It was her inspiration,” said Rick Small, morning show host on Mix 98.1 in Defiance. “How do you say no to a little girl who’s dying?”
Every year, Tiana’s Wish raises $20,000 to $25,000 in a 12-hour radio marathon that Mr. Small broadcasts outside the Defiance Walmart store on Tiana’s birthday.
The fruits of a little girl’s compassionate heart are spread to children battling catastrophic illnesses, those unfortunate enough to be in the hospital for the holidays, and, in some cases, their siblings too.
Eight-year-old Katlyn Goodman traveled to Toledo Children’s Hospital with her mother, Anne, from their home in Grand Rapids, Mich. even though Katlyn’s leukemia is in remission. She’s what the Bishops think of as alumni — those who were hospitalized with Tiana and have the pleasure to return to receive her gifts.
Mrs. Goodman said Tiana was like a big sister to Katlyn — teaching her how to swallow pills, crawling into bed with her to watch the Little Mermaid.
“That was her,” Mrs. Goodman said of Tiana’s giving spirit. “She went through it for so long that she was kind of like the mother hen to these kids.”
Thane Wooley, 13, of Wauseon was all smiles as he clutched a new skateboard, a Lego Marvel Xbox game, and a Lego building set. He has battled cancer for nine years.
Thane’s mother, Rana, said Tiana’s “spirit and her compassion for others was unbelievable.”
The first time the Bishops delivered gifts to Toledo Children’s — just one month after their only daughter had died — was, in a word, traumatic, Mrs. Bishop said. They did it anyway.
“She was just our world. We did everything together,” Mrs. Bishop said. “So when this happened, my husband and I decided it was going to go one of two ways. It was either going to kill us — or not.”
Anything they didn’t think they could do, they did.
“This year has been my hardest emotionally,” she said, fighting the inevitable tears. “I don’t know why.”
Pulling out his cell phone to share a picture of his daughter, Mr. Bishop said Tiana was diagnosed in 2009 with a form of muscular cancer that eventually spread to her bones. For 2½ years, she was in and out of Toledo Children’s Hospital. She attended school by Webcam from home or hospital.
She fought and prayed and believed, but in the end the disease invaded every bone of her body. Wise beyond her years, she had one other wish.
“One of the last things she said to us was, ‘Don’t forget the people in the nursing homes, Mom, because they don’t have anybody,’ ” Mrs. Bishop said. “She said, ‘Drive through a parking lot on a holiday. There won’t be any cars.’ ”
Mrs. Bishop said she had no idea where Tiana came up with that, but she and her husband have honored that wish too.
“She had one foot in heaven from the beginning,” Mrs. Bishop said. “She really did.”
Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.
First Published December 20, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
