❤️ Granting Nik's Wish

If you ask Kelli Ritschel Boehle who her hero is, she'll say her son, Nik. 

Diagnosed with a rare type of cancer at only 17, Nik fought the disease for four years before he passed in 2012. Eleven years later, Kelli still works every day to honor her son's memory.

🙏 What's in a wish... One of the most special memories during the time Nik was sick was their family's trip to Hawaii, granted by the Make A Wish Foundation.  

• “To him, [receiving a wish] was like the Willy Wonka golden ticket,” Kelli said. “He was always looking for the positive in this situation.”

Nik's Hawaii wish-trip was the brightest moment of his four-year battle with cancer. So when he met a fellow cancer fighter ineligible to receive a wish because he had just turned 18, it broke his heart.

The night before he passed, Nik asked his mom if she would help make young adults fighting cancer's wishes come true so they could experience the same joy he did during his fight with the disease.

• “It was like a seed he planted that just wouldn’t stop nagging at my mind until the point where it was waking me up in the middle of the night,” she shared of her son's request.

And hence, Nik's Wish was born. 

For the last decade and some change, Kelli has been running The Nikolas Ritschel Foundation (Nik's Wish for short), a nonprofit organization that grants wishes to young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who are battling cancer.

They've granted everything from family vacations, to new computers, to meet and greet events with celebrities – and Kelli uses every opportunity to honor and remember her son. 

🖤 Grief is a journey: It wasn't always easy for Kelli, who shared that at first granting the wishes was too painful for her, as it would remind her of the four-year cancer battle Nik went through. 

All these years later, however, and now it's her favorite thing to do. 

• “I think he is looking down from heaven, telling me, ‘I told you, Mom. We can do it. You can do it. They need it. Keep going,’” Kelli said. “I think he’s always encouraging me, always helping me out.”