The valentines came from as far away as Canada and England.
They were homemade and store-bought, silly and serious, pink and red, of course, but also yellow, green, blue and rainbow-striped.
They came from New Yorkers and Californians, football players and Girl Scouts, friends and complete strangers.
At last count there were 6,000 of them, and each and every one was for 5-year-old Maggie DeVries of suburban Frankfort.
The valentines — enough to adorn the walls, windows and stairwell of the home Maggie shares with her parents, Erin and Pete, and 2-year-old brother, Patrick — are part of a massive outpouring of love and support she has received since being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in January.
The local fire and police departments held a mini-parade in front of her house, and the charity Project Fire Buddies rounded up a limo so Maggie, a spunky kindergartner at Grand Prairie Elementary, could attend a behind-the-scenes tour of the Field Museum in style.
Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles sent Maggie a video, and a family friend who set out to raise $5,000 on GoFundMe was rapidly showered with more than $190,000 in donations.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we expect the outpouring of kindness that we’ve experienced,” said Maggie’s mom, Erin. “There are so many nice people in our community.”
Erin DeVries, who works for a local hospital system, said her family’s nightmare began while they were eating dinner together on a Friday night in January.
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“I think Maggie’s eye is crossing,” she said to her husband, Pete, a CPA.
Expecting their little girl might need glasses or an eye patch, the DeVries made an eye doctor appointment. And then, when Monday rolled around, they decided to have Maggie see her pediatrician as well.
The pediatrician examined Maggie and recommended taking her to the emergency room. He wanted her to get a brain scan as soon as possible.
The next day, after an MRI, doctors told the DeVries that Maggie had diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a rare and very aggressive brain tumor. Only 200 to 300 Americans — mostly children — are diagnosed with DIPG each year, and the median survival time is nine to 12 months.
Doctors can’t operate because the tumor is in an area of the brainstem responsible for vital functions such as breathing and heart rate.
“Unfortunately, this is the most aggressive pediatric brain tumor that we take care of,” said Dr. Alicia Lenzen, Maggie’s pediatric neuro-oncologist at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Radiation therapy is the standard treatment, but Maggie’s parents also enrolled her in a clinical trial at Lurie in which patients get medication intended to enhance the effectiveness of radiation. Chemotherapy has not been found to be effective against DIPG, Lenzen said.
“It’s not a guarantee,” Erin DeVries said of the clinical trial. “But we felt like it was our best shot to give Maggie the most normal life for the longest amount of time.”
After the diagnosis, a close family friend, Carrie Sapp set up a GoFundMe page to help the DeVries and free them up to focus on their little girl.
Sapp also started a Facebook page, Love for Maggie, and a local business, US Safety Products, made Love for Maggie T-shirts, decals and yard signs, with the profits going to the DeVries. There have also been fundraisers and gifts, including a seafoam green party dress that Maggie wore to the park district’s Daddy and Daughter dance.
Sapp was in the process of buying Valentines for her own 7-year-old-daughter to give out when she realized Maggie — who is getting radiation treatments five days a week for six weeks — would not be able to attend her school Valentine’s Day party.
Wouldn’t it be great, Sapp thought, if friends and strangers sent Maggie Valentine’s Day cards? Maybe they could get people to send in 100 cards.
Sapp posted a request for valentines on the Love for Maggie Facebook page, and by the first week in February she was getting about 200 valentines a day. By Feb. 10, boxes of valentines were arriving at her door. She and her husband, Teren, set out two banquet tables to hold the cards, which filled their dining room. They counted 6,000 cards before they turned their attention to stringing them up in the DeVries’ house.
Kids sent jokes: “How did the telephone propose to his girlfriend? He gave her a ring.” A kindergarten class made a bouquet out of their handprints. Adults sent glossy cards.
Maggie loves cheerleading, gymnastics and dance, and was taking classes in all three before she got sick. She’s also a Daisy in Girl Scouts. Radiation therapy has made her a bit tired and interfered with her busy schedule, but it hasn’t dimmed her enthusiasm. When she attended a dance class earlier this month she wore a sparkly purple party dress in honor of the occasion, and danced her heart out, despite some weakness on her right side.
She was so excited to attend her kindergarten class via Zoom recently, that she woke up at 4 a.m., ready to get started.
“She doesn’t want to miss out on anything,” her mom said.
Maggie knows that she has a “silly spot” on her brain, and that she has to go to the hospital a lot to make sure the spot doesn’t get any bigger, Erin DeVries said.
“She seems to sense that that’s a big deal — that she has this ‘silly spot.’ But I kind of think she’s just going along with it, if that makes sense,” she said. “Like she’s enjoying the ride a little bit, which is fine.”
Maggie gets embarrassed when family members wear their Love for Maggie shirts, but she was impressed, her mom said, to see teal ribbons tied to every tree in their subdivision.
“Wow,” Maggie said. “All of those ribbons are for me?”
“Yup, cause that’s how many people love you,” Erin DeVries replied.
The outpouring of support from friends, employers and strangers has allowed the DeVries to spend as much time as possible with Maggie, without worries and distractions. “That’s a gift we’ll never be able to repay — or we’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to pay it forward,” Erin DeVries said.
Family members are pitching in too, with Erin DeVries’ mother, Bridget Lorenz, living with the DeVries five days a week, and dad, Rick, visiting often.
Erin DeVries said that she and her husband haven’t had much time to process their own feelings since the diagnosis, but they know what they want for their little girl. Maggie went to the Field Museum three times in seven days recently, her mom said, and why not? If Maggie wants macaroni and cheese at Panera Bread after radiation, they go to Panera.
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Recently, Maggie wanted to jump on the DeVries’ trampoline, so her mother figured out how to make that work for her.
“Maggie having a good day — or good moments in her day — that’s what we’re leading with,” Erin DeVries said. “That’s our North Star.”