Dad brings color, joy to cancer unit at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Greg Martin Jr. began drawing on windows in the pediatric cancer unit at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor when his son, Owen, requested he draw Bart Simpson on his window in June.
Little did they know, the 16-year-old's request would soon transform the entire floor.
People took notice, and soon other patients were asking for him to draw on their windows, too.
He said sharing his art with others came naturally and lifted his spirits in a place where everything feels like it's hanging in the balance.
"There was this one time this kid asked for a dinosaur, and we sat down and picked some stuff out together, and he wanted a real dinosaur, but he wanted it to be red and blue," said Martin.
The boy was taken to surgery, but Martin stayed, determined to finish the drawing by the time he got back. That's when the boy's father walked in.
"It was the first time he even knew about it or sat down," said Martin. "So, he seen what I was doing, and as the process was going, the smile on that man's face - I know that he felt like a kid again. Because when he comes out and the kid was coming in from surgery, and he opens up the door, he says, 'Man, he's going to love this.'"
Martin said he achieved his goal of making the family smile during a time filled with fear and uncertainty.
"I think it really took everyone out of that scary moment for a minute," he said. "And that's what really gets (me) is the feeling of trying to pass on a positive note, a positive vibe, because everything is so negative."
Staff on the unit say both Martin's presence and his work have made a big impact.
"I think, for himself, Greg goes and seeks out other parents to kind of provide comfort through the things that he does," said unit clerk Scott Baker, who points to a life-size drawing of The Hulk.
"This one took six hours to do," said Baker. "I sat there and watched him do it the whole time. It took one pen, believe it or not. He was super surprised and awfully impressed with himself, and rightly so; it's really great."
Nurse Sandy Martin said his drawings encourage the patients to walk around the unit.
"It gets them up walking around because they want to see each character on each door, and so we say, 'Can you go down to Stitch?' Or, 'Can you walk down to the Hulk and walk all the way that far?'" she said. "So, it gets them something to motivate them and gets them moving around the floor."
Parent Janine Ellison said the drawings lifted her mood when she entered the unit for the first time. Her almost two-year-old son, Jacob, has been at Mott for two months receiving treatment.
"When we first got on the unit, walking down the main hall with all the pictures of the children who've been here. It was very sad for us," she said. "But, once we got actually into the unit and I saw this door of the gnome puking – it made me feel so much better. When I actually got to meet the dad, I talked to him about how much it really helped us, and it strengthened us to see all these bright colors and pictures, and it made us feel better about being here."
When CBS News Detroit interviewed Martin, he was drawing a horse requested by a young girl.
"I can't wait to see what she's going to say," said Martin. "Because she's been peeking through the curtain while I've been doing it here and there … she's been watching me."
He's been here long enough to experience loss.
A 12-year-old patient named Ziko recently died after battling adult pancreatic cancer, a rare occurrence in pediatric cases.
Martin developed a friendship with Ziko, who loved to watch him draw.
"With cancer, what sucks is you just never know," said Martin. "One minute you're good, and you think you're doing great, and the next minute you're not. But he was definitely the strongest little guy I've ever met in my life."
Having spent so much time on the unit, he said the experience continues to give him perspective.
"It's not about just you and your family; after a while, you get to meet people, and you see other people and what they're going through," he said. "You know, it's like the old saying: You always think that you've got it bad, but there's always somebody out there that's got it just a little worse than you do. And when you get to meet some of these people and you realize that for yourself, it really puts what you've got going on into perspective."