By Naheed Rajwani
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Gloria Adekilekun has been preparing for the worst for months, but Friday offered a rare ray of sunshine.
Her 14-year-old son, Ayodeji, was named Dallas’ police chief for a day, a point of pride for a mother still coming to grips with the teen’s brain cancer diagnosis. The boy is in hospice care at the family’s apartment.
Although symbolic, the gesture by Dallas police was significant for a family of Nigerian immigrants.
In addition to a chief badge and a police patch, Chief U. Renee Hall and a cadre of officers delivered their support and a treasure trove of gifts for the family that doesn’t own much.
“For officers to be coming into my home and doing this for me, I am surprised,” Adekilekun said. “Back in my country, they don’t do that.”
The family moved to the U.S. a year ago, after Ayodeji was diagnosed with terminal cancer. They’d traveled to the United Arab Emirates and India for treatment, and they were hopeful American doctors might be able to help.
But they also found help outside of doctors’ offices.
Officer Raashid Brown, a neighborhood police officer, was visiting Dan F. Long Middle School in August when the principal pointed Ayodeji out to him and described him as a standout student who just happened to have brain cancer.
At the time, Adekilekun still had hope, but the boy’s doctor had told her to prepare for the worst.
In the fall, the teen had a seizure and was placed in hospice care at home. He’s been bedridden ever since.
Over Christmas, the officers had arranged for a local business to donate $300 to the family, knowing they wouldn’t get to celebrate otherwise.
Adekilekun fell to the ground and wept when Officer Brown and the donor stopped by the Far North Dallas apartment on Christmas Eve with the check and a ham that Brown’s friends had gifted.
“I can’t imagine somebody just walking in and giving me money,” said Adekilekun, who shares the barely furnished two-bedroom apartment with her three children, her sister and nephew.
https://twitter.com/DallasPD/status/949314888815599616
She used $200 of the Christmas gift for this month’s rent and the rest for groceries.
But Brown and his police partner, Officer Lamar Glass, still wanted to do more for the family, so they asked Hall for permission this week to make Ayodeji an officer for a day. The chief offered a better alternative: Make him chief.
Hall stopped by the apartment Friday morning to deliver the news to Ayodeji in person. She prayed with his family before leaving and told reporters outside the apartment that the chief-for-a-day gesture showed what the Dallas Police Department is all about.
“This is the human side of us,” Hall said. “Each and every day we focus on violent crime, we focus on quality of life issues — but this is life.”
Brown said he and his colleagues are still collecting funds to improve the family’s quality of life and pay for Ayodeji’s funeral when the time comes.
“I’ve learned to be really grateful, even in the shortcomings I may have, because there’s always somebody that’s willing to trade places,” Brown said.
On Friday, the officers were rewarded with a response from the boy they’ve visited for several months.
Ayodeji’s eyes flickered and he tried to speak despite the tube in his mouth.
His mother expressed what he could not.
“I don’t know what to say,” Adekilekun said. “I just appreciate it and I keep praying for them.”
She spent the afternoon by her son’s side, reading to him from the children’s books the officers had brought. Dallas finally felt like home.
©2018 The Dallas Morning News