My Son Is 10 Now… But This Snow Day From Years Ago Still Hits Me Hard

Brody is 10 now, and I’ve been a proud St. Jude Partner in Hope for years. But like a lot of things in life, sometimes you need a reminder of why you started in the first place… and recently I came across an article I wrote 7 years ago that hit me right in the heart.

Over the weekend, I took my then 3-and-a-half-year-old son Brody to play in the snow at Albany’s Washington Park. It was our first time really getting out there together and just playing. It was a week of firsts for him… but it needed to be a week of firsts for me, too. I needed a little perspective — and I found it that morning.

Brody loved every second of it. He ran, he slipped, he fell, he laughed. I showed him how to make snowballs and, after a few tries, he packed together a pretty solid little snow nugget… and promptly fired one at my chest. Direct hit. His puffy snowsuit was soaked, tiny frozen snowballs clung to his boot laces, and I must have asked him twenty times if he was cold.

“No, I’m not cold, Daddy!” he kept saying, smiling the entire time.

He didn’t notice… but I actually teared up.

Not because I was sad. Because sometimes I feel like I’ve lost a little of that childhood innocence. Life has a way of doing that to all of us. We get busy, stressed, and maybe even a little jaded. Normally, by mid-winter, I’m complaining about snow like everyone else. But not that day. That day, watching him fall into the soft white snow and pop back up laughing… I couldn’t get enough.

The little things, you know?

Seeing a healthy, happy kid run and play and just be a kid — and getting to experience it through his eyes — reminded me how lucky I am. Because not every parent gets that moment. Some kids aren’t outside building snowmen. They’re inside hospitals. They’re fighting cancer. They’re spending their energy battling something no child should ever have to face.

That’s why St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is so important. They don’t just treat kids — they save lives. They give families hope. They make sure parents never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing, or food. They focus on helping children live.

That morning, years ago, I became a St. Jude Partner in Hope.

I did it for the kids who look out the window at the snow but can’t play in it, and for the kids who can play today but might not be able to tomorrow.

I did it because it was a week of firsts for my son… and it needed to be a week of firsts for his dad, too.