"My Fan Raul"

I know a young man that is very sick, I see him a number of times over the year. His name is Raul.

I was sort of surprised, because Raul is about 14. My usual fans run the wide age range of 3 to 7 and everything in between, not a lot of 14 year olds dig clowns. Raul is also a big kid. Football big. He is 14 and already stand 6 foot something. So, it's kind of cool this kid adores me so much.

Raul lives at Family House which houses families while their children are in treatment at UC San Francisco Med Center, UCSF Children's Hospital. All his cousins are there too. They think of this whole living is San Francisco thing with their sick cousin as a giant adventure. They are from the Central Valley in California about a hundred plus miles from here.

Last Thanksgiving, when I was visiting Family House, Raul had to spend the night in the hospital. He was crazy upset, refusing to be in the hospital, apparently seeing me was really important to him. Pretty incredible, that I would have such a loyal fan or maybe he just hates doctors and nurses at this point. I'll take it that he loves me.

I went to visit Raul in the hospital the next day. But he was in chemo when I went to his room, so I was dragged by another parent into a different room to say hi to their daughter. Which I did. I shouldn't say "dragged" once I'm there, it's a kick to see the kids there. I suppose that sounds a bit crass but kids always make me laugh. I don't see tubes and IV's I see their eyes laughing under oxygen masks. I don't tend to get very moved while in the hospital, I am only moved when I write about what I saw.

The funny thing about being a clown in a hospital, no one questions anything I do. I can just wander wherever, which is a problem because I can and I will. I can get into all sorts of problamatic situations, hospitals are foreign places. As a clown, I like foreign places, I try and get to the root of why it's foreign. But I know my job there is to see the kids.

So, I made this little girl laugh, she was on respirators, ventilators, vaporizers and other medical devices ending in ors.

I was heading back to see Raul. A team of very serious women decended upon me, dragging me (Boswick the clown) into a room. "why did you go in there?" "That's a quarantine room" "Who told you you could go in there?" Um...the nurses asked me to go in. I just go where I'm told and in case you haven't noticed I'm a clown!

Then I was kicked out and because I had gone into a quarantine room, I couldn't visit Raul. I wasn't even allowed to get my little case, they brought it to me and escorted me away. Foot in the behind nearly.

I'm not great with authority but I held it in check, because you know...it's kids. And I would like to visit again.

So, now Raul, who didn't want to stay in the hospital, because he wanted to see me, didn't get to see me.

I quickly made a video for him. It was pretty cool. it was a 3 minute thing tallking to him and doing a couple of magic tricks. He to liked it. He sent me an email saying so. But you know, even though he's sick, he's 14 and doesn't talk much.

Last year I did a theatre show for kids and set one show up for Raul. He can't be around other kids because he has no immunity. There he was, a giant 14 year old kid, smiling away. His crazy cousins filling out the audience.

You know, it's neat what I do. Sometimes I get in trouble but you know, Raul is one sick kid and maybe for a hour he can forget about bone marrow transplants and nurses drawing blood. His mom, hardly speaks English and you can tell she is pushed here and there by the hospital staff. It was nice to see her smile. It was nice to see Raul smile. It was nice to see Raul's cousins smile.