There was some heartwarming — not heartbreaking — news from the Chicago Bears this week.
Two days after a tough loss to the Washington Commanders on the game’s final play, Bears tight end Cole Kmet on Tuesday surprised 14-year-old pediatric heart patient Jonah Davis with an all-expenses-paid trip to Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale, Arizona.
The surprise, arranged by the Bears and Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, came at one of the 14-year-old Bears fanatic’s favorite spots, Mark’s Card Shop in Downers Grove. Jonah talks shop with owner Mark Gronek at the store two or three times a week.
“It was crazy. I was not expecting all this,” said Jonah, an eighth-grader at O’Neill Middle School in Downers Grove. “I mean, I came in here just thinking it was going to be a normal day at Mark’s Card Shop.”
It was anything but normal, with the Bears Drumline banging away right outside the door and the team’s mascot, Staley Da Bear, dancing on the sidewalk.
Inside, parents Rob and Stacie Davis and sister Stella, 10, were joined by aunts, uncles and grandparents, along with Bears and Advocate personnel, a news team, card shop employees and Jonah’s pediatric cardiologist and cardiac intensivist, Dr. Andrew Van Bergen.
“He’s a superstar,” Van Bergen told the crowd. “Jonah is not just living with congenital heart disease, Jonah is thriving with congenital heart disease.”
The smiling, tousle-haired boy certainly looked it Tuesday. But after Rob and Stacie Davis moved here from Minnesota, Jonah was diagnosed in utero with potentially fatal hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
To have Jonah’s right ventricle also do the work of an absent left ventricle required three surgeries in the first three years of his life. It is a lifelong condition, Van Bergen said.
A nurse with Downers Grove School District 58 and formerly with Lurie’s Children’s Hospital, Stacie Davis knew the score.
“Raising Jonah and having that knowledge, it messes with me a little bit, but it’s been good,” she said.
It was great Tuesday, when a little after 4 p.m. Staley escorted Jonah into the shop, where he was expecting to look at Gronek’s ploy of “a special card.”
Instead, the surprise turned out to be the smiling Kmet, the 6-foot-6, 260-pound, five-year pro, a graduate of St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights and the University of Notre Dame.
“Oh, get out,” a stunned Jonah said as the big Bear emerged from the rear of the shop.
Kmet signed one of his football cards for Jonah, talked a bit about hot cards and opened a pack of cards with the young fan and Van Bergen. Jonah was the winner, getting a card of Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes.
Kmet also presented Jonah with a custom Bears jersey he autographed, and the big facsimile ticket for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals.
“At Arizona, no way!” exclaimed Jonah, who will be joined by his family on the road trip.
“I was super-surprised,” he said when the fanfare subsided. “I had no idea this was going to happen. Being a big Bears fan you always want to meet the players you watch on TV, and it’s crazy that you got to meet him one on one.
“(Kmet) coming around the corner, I was super-surprised, and all my family members were here, too. I had no idea that was going to happen, but it was real exciting.”
Though the prospective sports analyst cannot play tackle football, he played receiver and safety in flag football through the Downers Grove Park District.
“I might be a little short,” he said, “but I can still catch the ball.”