By Sean Kirst From Syracuse.com

Maybe a month ago, Roy George opened an email from Sharon Hampson. It was sent to a network of old friends linked to Sharon, Lois and Bram, the Canadian musical trio famous for their children’s songs.

Lois Lilienstein, Sharon wrote, was struggling with a rare form of cancer. Sharon suggested that anyone who had a moment might want to send an encouraging note, and she’d try to make sure Lois heard those messages.

To Roy, there was only one way to respond:

He went to his piano.

Roy has loved “the trio,” as he calls them, since he was a toddler in Syracuse. He was born on Christmas Eve, 1988. When he was 18-months-old, his mother, Madalyn George-Thiemann, introduced him to the “Elephant Show,” in which Hampson, Lilienstein and Bram Morrison performed the gentle, familiar children’s songs that turned them into legends.

Madalyn recalls how Roy’s connection with Sharon, Lois and Bram was immediate, and almost mystical. He’d raise his arms so Madalyn could hold him and they could dance to the melodies, especially “Skinnamarink,” the song whose warm and silly language is universally associated with Sharon, Lois and Bram:

Skinnamarinky, dinky dink
Skinnamarinky do
I love you

For as long as Roy remembers, he felt a bond with the trio that went far beyond their music. His room was covered with art celebrating their music and achievements, and he collected as much of their recorded work as he could find. Listening to them was “definitely my safety,” said Roy, who tends to minimize questions about his own difficult journey – although his mother, as mothers will, is proud to tell the tale:

“He’s a miracle kid,” she said. “He’s the most positive, joyful guy you’ll ever meet.”

Madalyn is a pediatric nurse. She worked for 39 years at Crouse Hospital, where she met Roy. He was born with a congenital intestinal disease. During infancy, he was turned over to the foster care system. His condition meant he needed to stay at Crouse, for a long time.

Roy had to be fed by a catheter, and the doctors quietly told the nursing staff he probably wouldn’t live beyond a year or two.

The child had other ideas. Madalyn, a person of faith, maintains his survival was part of a greater plan: From his early months on, no matter what, the infant always seemed to smile.

Madalyn remembers how the nurses became Roy’s collective family. They would keep an eye on him in a playpen in the hall, where he never lacked for company: Just about every adult walking past felt a need to stop and play with this joyful, laughing baby.

At a year and a half, although Roy had yet to weigh 20 pounds, the doctors said he could leave the hospital.

Madalyn agreed to be his foster mother. She took Roy home. As soon as she could make it happen, he became her second child, by adoption.

In front of her television, eyes wide, Roy was mesmerized by the Elephant Show.
The fascination, Madalyn said, helped Roy to unveil his own musical gifts. His primary nurse, Debbie Diamond, nurtured his passion for music. By the time he was five, he was learning the piano. His goal was mastering the songs of Sharon, Lois and Bram.

He was still being fed by a catheter each night, while enduring what he describes simply as “many surgeries.” The people from Make-A-Wish of Central New York, the foundation that grants wishes to children with serious illnesses, learned about his story.

They told Madalyn that her son qualified for their program, which could have meant a trip to DisneyWorld, or a Caribbean cruise.

Roy, then 10, had a simpler request: Sharon, Lois and Bram would soon perform at the Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater, with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

“All I wanted to do,” Roy said, “was go backstage and meet them.”

On Feb. 13, 1999, the wish was granted.

Make-A-Wish took him there in a limousine, accompanied by his mother, a couple of Roy’s friends and several nurses who’d been at his side since he was tiny, including Ellen Wood-Goebel. He was greeted with hugs by Sharon, Lois and Bram – “Lois was very motherly,” Madalyn said, “and he seemed to cling to her.”

As a tribute to the perfomers, Madalyn, Roy and Ellen stood together and sang “Side by Side” in three-part harmony, as they’d watched Sharon, Lois and Bram do so many times.
Roy then received one of the great thrills of his life: The trio asked the children to join them in singing “Skinnamarink,” their trademark song.

“What you saw on television is what you got,” Roy said. “They were so kind and genuine.”

The meeting led to an ongoing friendship. Roy continued with piano. He went on to graduate from Faith Heritage High School. He became a regular performer in musicals and shows throughout Central New York, until he and Madalyn moved to Virginia, where Roy, 26, teaches musical theater.

He’s remained in touch with Sharon, Lois and Bram, typically through emails in which he updates them on his life. While Lois retired from touring with the group in the late 1990s, she took part in the dedication of a community playground named for the trio a year ago, in Toronto, that reunited her with Sharon, Bram ….

And with Roy, who drove from Virginia for a chance to see them, together, at the dedication. How loyal is he? A few weeks ago, when he received a new license plate for his car, it arrived with these letters:

SKNMRNK.

“It’s a lovely thing,” said Bram in a telephone interview, noting he’s especially impressed by Roy’s own “natural musical talent.”

For Bram and his friends, the last few weeks have been a difficult time. On April 22, Lois Lilienstein, 78, died of cancer. Josh Matlow, a Toronto city councilor who put together the playground dedication, said he met recently with Sharon, Bram and David Lilienstein, Lois’ son, to discuss plans and ideas for civic memorials.

In that conversation, he recalled, Roy’s name came up as the epitome of a devoted fan.

Reached last week at his California home, David Lilienstein said he knew his mother stayed in contact with several Make-A-Wish “kids,” which to the son was no surprise: That was her fundamental nature.

He was also glad to hear about Roy’s video, in which a young man from Syracuse who wasn’t supposed to live beyond his toddling years plays piano and offers a message for Lois.

It intertwines with how Roy perceives the world. He’s never seen his illness as a struggle: Instead, he said, he views his entire life as a great gift. In the video for Lois, he concludes with “Skinnamarink,” whose core lyric transcends melody and becomes his philosophy, three words he’s learned can often provide comfort, amid the pain:

I love you.

Sean Kirst is a columnist with The Post-Standard.

IMAGES:
slb.jpg May 2014: Syracuse native Roy George (rear) with Lois Lilienstein, Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison at a Toronto playground dedication in honor of Sharon, Lois and Bram; Lilienstein died April 22 of a rare form of cancer. George, who met the trio as a child during a Make-A-Wish event, has maintained a lifetime bond with the musicians. (Roy George | Submitted photo)
0213 wish 2.JPG Roy George, 10, gets a hug from Lois Lilienstein of Sharon, Lois and Bram after the trio did a show at the Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater in 1999, in Syracuse. Marla Brose | The Post-Standard

For more on this story and videos go to: http://www.syracuse.com/kirst/index.ssf/2015/05/sharon_lois_and_bram_lois_lilienstein_died_roy_george_syracuse.html