This beautiful experience that Mark Hamill managed to give one family is truly inspiring and almost brought a layer of mist to my eyes just reading it. Anyone that gets to meet Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker is in fact a lucky fan, but for John Sikorra it was indeed something unique and quite special. John had been living with a disease known as juvenile Batten’s Disease, which is a rather complicated disease that robs children of their vision and then their cognitive functions. To date no child has managed to live beyond their teens or early twenties that has experienced this. But upon hearing about this through a friend of the Sikorra’s Hamill made his way to see John and absolutely made the young man’s day.
By this point John was quite far along as the disease had stolen a great deal of his cognitive functions and made it difficult to speak and remember things at times. But Hamill was more than accommodating and patient to a fault as he responded to John again and again, never growing frustrated or out of sorts as he exhibited the same kind of patience that Jedi Masters are known for. To sit and listen to such a thing would have been absolutely inspiring it seems, and to think that he did this without thought of anything other than to comfort a young man that had desired to meet him is enough to bring faith in Hollywood back to the fore.
In the midst of so many hateful and hurtful scandals it is important to remember that Hollywood is not the den of deceit and trickery and all things awful that it seems to be at times. There are those that belong to its many different folds that will in fact look upon their fellow human beings with respect and the dignity that is expected of any person that belongs to the human race. This encounter for John and his family was something unbelievable that was brought to be by the grace and caring nature of those that were aware of John’s condition and his desire to meet one of his heroes. The fact that Mark did this was something that should help restore just a bit of faith in the Hollywood elite, at least enough to think that there are people out there that care.
John even expressed a desire to meet Princess Leia, and rather than make some excuse as to why this wouldn’t happen Mark decided to say that he would ask. And true to his word he did ask, and Carrie Fisher even agreed to come and meet with John just as Mark had. Unfortunately John’s condition deteriorated quickly after this, and he passed away on September 24th in 2015. He didn’t get the chance to meet Princess Leia, the one and only Leia to any and all Star Wars fans, but he did get to meet his hero Luke Skywalker, and for that his family was very grateful.
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