ANN ARBOR, Mich. – It started with a simple request in a room on 7 East, the pediatric cancer unit at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.
“My son Owen, he was binge-watching The Simpsons one night, and he asked me if I could draw Bart Simpson and Homer on his door,” said Greg Martin Jr. “I literally haven’t drawn since I was a kid and it was kinda like, ‘Oh boy, here we go. People are going to be laughing at me,’ but it kind of took off pretty good.’ Then the next door asked me if I would do Scooby Doo for them, and here we are about a hundred drawings later.”
16-year-old Owen was diagnosed with AML leukemia in June.
“It’s hard,” said Martin. “And no one ever thinks that it can happen to them until it happens to them. It’s something that can just change in the blink of an eye. He’s a soldier. He really is. This kid is one of the bravest guys I know. I’m very proud of him for handling it the way he has been handling everything.”
Martin started drawing on other young patients’ windows, taking requests for favorite characters and animals.
“About 90% of the time, it’s all about what the kid wants because obviously it’s about them and what’s gonna make them feel better,” said Martin. “Sometimes they don’t really know, so they’ll leave it up to me.”
Martin said small drawings take about an hour, but the larger or more detailed pictures can take anywhere from two to five hours. It’s been time well spent.
“When you’re doing this, you’re not thinking of the bad stuff that’s going on right now, you’re not thinking about sickness, you know, you’re really just getting lost in your work,” said Martin.
The children love to watch Martin draw.
“A lot of the parents tell me it’s like art therapy for them in a way because they enjoy being able to sit and watch it come to life,” said Martin. “Not just the drawing of it, but when you really put color on it, that’s when you start to really see it.”
It means a lot to the parents, too. Chelsea Mausolf’s 2-year-old son Garrett is also a patient on 7 East.
“A few days after his first birthday, we found a tumor in his abdomen, and it was neuroblastoma cancer,” said Mausolf. “We’ve spent more time here than at home over the last year. Every time that we come here, we stroll the halls right away, and we look at all the new art. He even did a patient’s dog for them on the door. It just relieves a lot of stress and tension, and it brings happiness to the floor.”
“The kids love it,” said Martin. “I had a little guy that made me cry. He would always stop and watch me, but he never said anything, and I finally said, ‘Is there anything you would like me to do for you?’ and he was so humble, and he was like, ‘No, no, I just like to watch,’ and I said, ‘C’mon there’s got to be something that you like,’ and he told me he wanted penguins. He was in some pretty bad shape when I walked in, and he looks at me and says, ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’ I mean, it took everything I had to keep my composure, and then I’m like, ‘Wow, now I gotta go outside and draw penguins.’”
The staff enjoys Martin’s drawing, too.
“It gets people out of their room,” said Emily Drown, a registered nurse on 7 East. “People are just up in the hallway, wanting to see every single picture on every window. It’s just brought a lot of happiness and joy to our unit.”
Registered nurse Caryn Murray agrees.
“I really like that they don’t call them by room numbers anymore. It’s like the ‘penguin room’ or the ‘dinosaur room.’ They always get excited to see what room they’re gonna be assigned to,” said Murray.
The pictures have also helped mark the passage of time -- a challenge during long hospital stays.
“It’s like Groundhog’s Day,” Martin said. “When you’re here, it doesn’t feel like the next day is the next day. It just feels like you’re stuck in this loop. Nobody wants to sit in that room for forty days and look at the same thing. I’ve had patients where I’ve taken stuff off and put new stuff up just to give them a change and make them feel like they’ve left.”
“It’s very selfless,” said Drown. “I think it’s a form of therapy for him, though, too. I mean, these kids and their families, they go through some of the darkest times here, so it’s a way for him to kind of deal with his child’s diagnosis while also providing joy to everybody else.”
Martin has started a TikTok @cartoons4cancer to share his pictures outside of the hospital walls.
Owen continues to receive treatment at Mott, and Martin continues to draw.
“We have been here since June 2, and I don’t anticipate stopping any time soon,” said Martin. “Owen, he loves it. He actually pushes for me to go out and do more. He knows that it’s making other kids feel good and not only just himself. As long as he’s here, I’ll be putting ‘em down for him. As long as the requests keep coming in, then I’ll just keep going. I would love to be able to do it every day if I could. It would be a dream; it really would. It would be a dream.”
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