Little do we know the significance a gift may have when we give it from our heart to someone important to us.

by Victoria Hipps

This was especially true for the Ecuadorian family who delivered a giant, stuffed, purplish gorilla holding a huge red heart to Russell Hilliard, a seventy-four year old friend who had just undergone surgery. Mr. Hilliard had no clue either as he accepted the gift gracefully, expressing his gratitude for the kind gesture.

The gorilla was placed in a chair in the Hilliards’ living room directly across from where Russell sat during his recovery. Every day the gorilla caught his eye and he pondered what a man of his age was supposed to do with a stuffed toy. This became clearer during visits by his eight-year-old granddaughter, Rachel.

Using her grandmother’s scarves, Rachel brought the gorilla to life as she tied a bandana for its head, draped silk around its neck, and cuddled the stuffed beast in her lap. As Russell watched, he became more aware of the word “love” written in large letters on the gorilla’s heart and felt love in his own heart began to bloom for this cloth creature. This was more than a toy and he gave it a name — Willa the Gorilla.

Now as Willa caught Russell’s eye from across the room, love filled his heart and he wrote a poem to express his gratitude for friends and the hope that healing brings. The lines of the poem brought vivid pictures in the mind of a friend who saw its potential as a children’s book. Though having no idea how a book should be illustrated, the friend agreed to take on the project.

Over a period of two years, Willa the Gorilla & Me began to come alive on paper. The imagination of a child receiving a stuffed gorilla while facing treatment for cancer became the setting for Willa’s birth. Willa, a mountain gorilla, moves with the child through the days of a hospital stay and as with Russell, the child in the story finds comfort in this soft place.

The bilingual Willa the Gorilla & Me unites two tender subjects: children with cancer and mountain gorillas facing extinction. The book is dedicated to those who care for those precious resources on both fronts.

The Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation lists the following facts on their website: 46 children are diagnosed with cancer each school day; by the age of 20, one in 330 children will develop cancer; within five years of the time of diagnosis, one quarter of the children will die; and in America cancer still remains the number one disease killer of children.

Wheeling Jesuit University’s Center for Educational Technologies Class Room of the Future website offers the following information on the state of mountain gorillas in the world. “The mountain gorillas are the rarest of all and are on the verge of extinction. Only about 600 of these magnificent animals are left in the wild, about 320 in the Virunga Mountains and another 300 in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda. None are found in captivity.” These mountain gorillas and their habitat are being destroyed by war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and by those who fail to see the greatness of these awesome creatures.

The Ecuadorian family has returned to their homeland, but the gift they carried in their arms that fateful day in 2005 offered their friend an opportunity to reach beyond his circumstances to a place of hope and comfort. Willa the Gorilla & Me passes this gift on to its readers by reminding them how essential their imagination is for vitality and hope in daily living. It is a book “with a soul” offering the opportunity to experience healing delight, no matter the age or situation.

Copies of “Willa the Gorilla & Me” are available at a cost of $16.95 (NC residents please add 7%) through the publisher, The Story Words, LLC, PO Box 9366, Asheville, NC 28815, or by calling (828) 400-9785. Copyright 2007.