Craig Sager, recipient of the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at ESPN’s Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, or the ESPY Awards, gave an inspiring speech about his journey battling cancer and the comfort he’s found in the model train exhibit at Texas Children’s Hospital.
“Many nights I don’t get out of the hospital until after midnight. I always take the same walking path back to the hotel. The sidewalks wind through a maze of buildings, including Texas Children’s Hospital. Many nights I would stop, pause and I’ll go inside. A few feet inside the hallway is this large model train display covered by glass. There are seven buttons on the outside. They activate the trains, the circus, the toys and the trolley. And many nights alone, in the stillness and the solitude of the hospital, I push those buttons and I watch the trains as they disappear through the tunnel and emerge full steam on the other side. I watch the trains as they pass by the town square, the dinosaur canyon, the pirates cove, Santa Land and the ice skating rink. And I sit there and I watch and l listen. I listen to the sounds of the circus, of the kids laughing and of the train chugging along. Now I don’t know why I am so brought to this train set. Perhaps it’s my life coming full circle. Maybe it’s just the kid inside all of us. Or perhaps it’s a few minutes of my life that leukemia can’t take from me.”
Sager’s full speech: http://ow.ly/2PCs302fbkg