Realized about a week ago that Dennis Nordman was a member of pinside. I decided to send him a quick note letting him know how much my youngest son likes our Indy 500.

Indy was our first pin, and it's been something Zach has liked since he was little. After I sold a couple pins recently he made me promise (quite adamantly) that I would never sell it.

In the note to Dennis, I told him about my promise to Zach and told him maybe I could find him at a pinball convention someday to get Zach's translite signed.

As we had subsequent conversations, I told Dennis how Zach would be having his last round of chemo on Saturday night (after a 3 year 3 month battle with cancer). Dennis, after finding out we live 30-40 minutes away, asked if Zach might be interested in playing him at Indy 500...at our house!

So this morning, Dennis and his wonderful wife stopped by to meet Zach and play some pinball! Zach was thrilled! Dennis also brought him an actual banner from a past Indianpolis 500 race, some signed flyers, and toys from Indy 500 and Demolition Man! Before they left, Dennis signed Zach's Indy 500 translite.

I can't fully express in words what the visit meant to Zach. From the moment Zach first screamed from upstairs this morning, "He's here!" I could tell it made his (and our) day.

What a great guy! What a great day! Thanks for making my son's end of chemo weekend even brighter!

image.jpg
image-435.jpg

PM sent.

And to everyone...thank you so much for the kind words directed at us and Zach! It is definitely nice to finally be seeing the light the doctors promised would be at the end of this long tunnel and journey.

Now it might be time to add another Nordman pin to the lineup!

Saw a nice Demo Man in the Chicago area for $2700 (was in Market...seller just created a FS thread), but I think it might too nice/costly than what I'd be open to getting. But definitely a great looking example.

Never played one but read great things about it and willing to consider without playing based on our love of Indy 500...and it gets extra points from my family after our special house guest on Saturday.

The box of goodies just arrived!

Zach loves getting stuff in the mail, and since this is the first day back at school for him, it'll be an even better surprise when he gets home in a couple hours!

Thanks so much for doing this for him, Troy!

And thanks to Cliff as well for the extra items he's thrown in!

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read the story of a very special day. Hadn't caught that a few people had commented on the thread recently.

Update on Zach:

He is doing great and enjoying his first months of living life as a normal, healthy boy.

For those who didn't see the thread I started about my boys getting to do callouts for TWD, he was pronounced cancer-free in September and had surgery to remove his port (port-a-cath) shortly after that great news.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twdfirst-gameplay-review-from-a-6-and-8-year-old

He's playing indoor soccer with his brother this winter, and we're planning our first long-distance family vacation (where we don't have to stay within a couple hours of Loyola).

And he's looking forward to an upcoming trip to the Dells...for his first ever chance to go swimming!