WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas – Steve Redell was 38, but he still loved balloons. It’s easy to understand why. There’s something about their bright colors and fun shapes that make you feel like a celebration is underway.
And that is, in a way, what’s happening at Redell’s White Settlement home – a celebration of his life and a celebration of love, as in love thy neighbor. “I didn’t personally know him, and I just live up the street,” said Barbara Casados, a neighbor on Saddle Lane. “It’s just some way of saying hey, we care. We feel you. We feel what you’re going through.”
Casados dropped off a few balloons at the Redell home Friday morning and hugged Steve’s sister Susan Williams. It’s become almost routine, Susan said.
Steve was battling a rare form of leukemia. He came home from the hospital for the final time on Monday night. Doctors said there was nothing more they could do.
His wife, Melissa, posted a request on a White Settlement community Facebook page asking for people to drop off a few balloons in their front yard since, from his hospice bed, Steve could see out their front window. “The first night when he came home from the hospital there were just a few balloons,” said his mother Helen Redell, “and then in the morning we looked out and there were more balloons. People would come up and drop them off, and we didn’t even see them. Then, we began paying attention and greeting people when they came and getting hugs from people.”
Throughout the week the display kept growing, inside and out. “Some of the balloons are out here, but we brought some in,” Redell said. “They’d come in, and his eyes would just get really big and his mouth open, he smiled. Yeah, he liked it.”
Redell passed away just after midnight Friday morning, which was his fifth wedding anniversary.
Williams said her brother and his family moved to White Settlement from Oregon about three years ago. They knew no one in Texas, but Steve had a good job offer. He got sick soon after their move.
Williams said her biggest fear was her brother and Melissa facing such turbulent times alone. One look outside their door tells you they are not alone anymore. “It makes me want to go home and do something nice to my neighbors,” Redell said with a smile and a laugh.
Williams created a Facebook page, Opie’s Minions, where she kept extended family updated on her brother’s condition. During the last week, the page documented the growing balloon display.
Steve had received a bone marrow transplant from a stranger found through the Be The Match organization. There was hope the transplant would bring healing, but unfortunately, his body began rejecting it, which led to organ failure.
While the balloons and cards brought much-needed smiles to the Redells during Steve’s final days, White Settlement community members also donated school supplies for the couple’s children. “This is a real nice community. I’m really impressed,” Redell said. “I’d like to take a little of this back home.”