The way Gina Nichols recalls it, the rain that night in 2007 was just coming down in sheets.
She and her 7-year-old son, Harrison, were waiting to meet her husband's flight up to New York City from Charlotte, but the weather had caused delay after delay and the odds of him getting in that evening seemed to be rapidly dwindling.
As stressful as that sounds, Mike Nichols, Gina and most of all, Harrison, had dealt with worse. The family from Cornelius had essentially relocated to an apartment near the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City not long after Harrison was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2002. While she comforted Harrison through cycle after cycle of chemotherapy and a seemingly endless string of surgeries to fight the insipid cancer ravaging his young body, her husband commuted north on weekends to be with his family.
In the car that night, with rain coming down in buckets, Nichols tried to gently break the news to Harrison about his father's likely travel plans.
"I don't know, buddy, I don't know if dad's going to make it in tonight," she told him. "But I'm sure he'll get on a flight in the morning."
And then from the backseat came what Nichols refers to as a "Harrisonism."
"Mom, sometimes you just have to believe in the unbelievable," he said. "Daddy will make it."
And sure enough, he did. It was quite late, but he did.
"He was like a small Buddha," Nichols recalls about her son's wisdom. "I'm not really sure how he knew the stuff he knew, but he did. These children tend to be very wise beyond their years ... they have to grow up very quickly."
Now, nearly four years after Harrison's passing, the Harrison Nichols Foundation continues to "Believe in the Unbelievable" — the theme for its annual gala to raise funds for families struggling with the crushing costs of battling pediatric neuroblastoma.
Set for Saturday, Feb. 25, this will be the gala's third year. In 2011, Nichols says the gala raised $55,000, a big jump from the $35,000 raised in the event's first year in 2010. As far as a fundraising goal for this year's soiree, Nichols and Sheila Brady, Harrison's aunt and the foundation's treasurer, say they're aiming high.
"I would like to get through the families on our list, with room for more," Nichols says. That means bringing in about $75,000.
"That would be beautiful, I'd be thrilled," she says.
And so would the dozen or so families currently on the foundation's list, as the expenses involved in their children's diagnosis are staggering.
"It's financially devastating," says Nichols, and that's largely because of the course of treatment involved and the fact that most families will have to travel to one of just a handful of hospitals in the country equipped to handle a pediatric neuroblastoma patient.
She says there aren't many facilities with the protocols and drugs to treat the disease, and when a child fails the first rounds of treatment, which many do, families have to find a facility with more options. Often that means relocation or extensive commuting, and always, it means an incredible financial and personal toll.
"Neuroblastoma is one of those diseases where you're in treatment for a very long time," says Nichols of the incurable cancer. "It's not a 'wham-bam' and then you're done ... it's a minimum of a year in an 'if all goes well' scenario.
"Usually, someone loses their job, I've seen people lose their cars, their homes, hock their wedding rings, you do anything you can to keep going. It's extremely expensive to have a child with neuroblastoma, that's the bottom line."
And it's a family's bottom line that the Harrison Nichols Foundation, established in 2005 while Harrison was still alive, strives to support. While there is an application process, Nichols says decisions are not made based solely on a family's income. Although she and her husband made a comfortable living and were able to send Harrison to Davidson Day School (where he's regularly honored and remembered through a mix of scholarships, awards and publications), Nichols says they still couldn't have kept their heads above water if it hadn't been for the financial support of their extended family.
"We really try not to turn anyone away," she says. "I don't care how much money you have, you don't have enough for this."
Nichols says, on average, the foundation is able to give each qualifying family in the range of $2,000 to $2,500, to be spent as the family sees fit. She says the foundation does not micromanage the use of funds nor does it demand receipts for every purchase, and for good reason — she trusts the families to triage their needs, no matter how slight.
"If you can't make a co-payment (on your insurance), use it for a co-pay," Nichols says. "If you're on the edge of foreclosure because you're three months behind on your mortgage, use it for your mortgage.
"What I want to do is give you money and I want you to do what you need to do with that money. I've been with a child in chemo days from hell ... where your child is fit to be tied and nothing's going to work except a trip to Target and some Legos, so sister, you go buy those Legos."
Nichols says the small but growing foundation has managed to distribute more than $100,000 to families fighting the neuroblastoma fight, as well as $25,000 that was given for research at the request of a major donor.
The Harrison Nichols Foundation has assisted families from all over the country, as well as some right here in the Lake Norman area. Nichols says she knows of at least four children in Huntersville alone struggling with the disease. But whether it's a family in California or one right next door, the mission remains the same.
"For me, Harrison's life could not have been in vain," says Nichols. "There had to be something in this bigger than just his fight."
Wanna dance?
The Harrison Nichols Foundation "Believe in the Unbelievable" gala will be Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m., at Center Stage in the NoDa area of Charlotte. Tickets to the black tie-optional event cost $125 each and include heavy hors d'oeuvres, an open bar and dancing. Purchase tickets online at www.harrisonnicholsfoundation.org or call Sheila Brady at 704-779-0156.
