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Personal Journeys: The Fairy Godmother

 

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  • AJC photographer Curtis Compton spent a month roaming the corridors of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston to capture the joy Jackie Viener brings children suffering from serious disease. Here, “world’s best hugger” Viener ends a visit with 13-year-old Hannah Layfield by bestowing one of her trademark embraces before the girl’s last chemotherapy treatment.
  • Around her neck, Viener always wears a heart-shaped pendant containing a photo of the “love of her life
  • Viener spins the tale of the “Three Little Pigs” for 4-year-old Lex Money, who was awaiting his second heart transplant. She had been visiting Lex during the four years he had been undergoing multiple surgeries and treatments.
  • Spreading cheer and hope every Tuesday for the past seven years, Viener pushes her book cart through the hospital halls. “It’s not the easiet thing in the world, but I do it,” she says, noting that many people tell her they’re not emotionally equipped to work with sick children.
  • Noah Carlile, 6, of Braselton, receives a spot of fairy dust from Viener. Upon the dust is carried one wish that can be given, not granted. There is a distinct difference, she says.
  • Mirclae Mitchell, 12, shares a smile with Viener at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s story time, when children and parents are treated to a “magic hour,” during which “not a single child, not a single parent even thinks about the next chemo, the next shot, the next blood sample, the next procedure,” Viener says.
  • Viener transforms into “Fairy Godmother” by donning a costume. The final piece will be a tiara given to her by the parents of children with cancer in Richmond, Va., where she began volunteering 30 years ago.
  • Kevin Romosalas, 5, Norcross, seems a bit surprised to run into Viener pushing a book cart through the blood and marrow transplant unit at Children's Healthcare on Aug. 28.
  • Even fellow volunteers can use a wish. Fokes Link, 34, who has volunteered for two years in the children's library, closes his eyes while Viener places a piece of imaginary fairy dust in his hand.