Lowell 9-Year-Old Receives Birthday Phone Call From Astronaut In Space
LOWELL (CBS) -- A Lowell boy received a special birthday surprise from astronaut Chris Cassidy on Thursday. Nine-year-old Lucas St. Onge, who survived a five-organ transplant when he was five, loves space.
One of his bucket list items was to meet an astronaut. In January, that dream came true when Cassidy visited him before being launched into space.
On Thursday, Cassidy called Lucas from the International Space Station to wish him a happy birthday.
"It was amazing and awesome," said Lucas.
Lucas's mother Heather says he is now an athletic boy who is active, eats a lot, and stays up to date on NASA news.
"That was never the case before [the transplant]. Before he would just sit around and watch everyone else. Now he wants to be in the action," said Heather.
A car parade was arranged to celebrate Lucas's birthday and the anniversary of his transplants.
"The parade today was, it was out of the box trying to figure out trying to do a birthday party for a child that misses everyone. When I reached out to one of the chiefs that used to be in Wilmington and he said, 'oh I have a surprise for Lucas.' I had no idea that meant he was going to pull the card out and call in all the police departments in the area and have them in the parade," Heather said. "It was exciting for him. He got to see some of his old teachers, his current teachers, the teacher he hopes to have next year, some of his friends he can't see every day, so it was emotional but it was, in his words, amazing."
After that, Lucas received his surprise call from Cassidy.
"Lucas was telling him about certain things that were going on here like about COVID-19 and then Chris said that when he comes back and if school's back in session he would love to come and sit at Lucas's school and have lunch with him," Heather said.
"I was so excited," said Lucas.
