(The following report by Bob Roberts appeared at WBBM.com on May 31, 2010.)
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. — Five years have passed since a magical moment on a Metra platform in Downers Grove. Now, the inspirational story is going worldwide.
On Memorial Day weekend 2005, Debi Tibbles received the surprise of her life.
She was still in mourning over the passing of her seven-year-old son Ollie, who battled brain cancer for two years. Ollie was a big train fan, not unlike many other boys his age, but when approached by the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Metra relaxed its rules and allowed Ollie a ride in the locomotive cab.
Debi told many people that Ollie’s dying wish was to be a train, not unlike the characters in the “Thomas the Tank Engine” book series that is so popular with young train fans.
By then, Debi was a devoted Make-A-Wish volunteer, and the organization — without her knowledge — approached Metra with an unprecedented request, asking it to name one of its locomotives for Ollie.
Metra had named a number of locomotives for deceased executives and the communities it serves. But it had never named a locomotive for a child. In fact, no American railroad had ever done so.
Debi had no idea what was happening until the gleaming, new Metra locomotive 401 pulled into the Downers Grove BNSF line station, with the name “Oliver ‘Ollie’ Tibbles” emblazoned beneath the engineer’s window. At a loss for words, she reached out, stroked the side of the locomotive, and began to cry as TV cameras rolled.
It was not a one-time deal. Metra officials decreed that Ollie’s name would remain with the locomotive permanently, and the locomotive remains assigned to the BNSF line that passes near the Tibbles family home.
The magical moment was only the beginning for Debi. Since then, she said, Ollie the locomotive has provided good cheer for countless other people.
“It heals me every day when I see the joy this engine is bringing to so many,” she said.
She said Ollie the train seems to pop up often when others who knew Ollie or know of his story are feeling down and out or need a reason to smile.
The inspiration and spirit begin at home.
Debi recalls one day, recently, when Ollie’s brother George was feeling sad, and her husband decided to take him to the Lincoln Park Zoo on Metra. At a station stop, another train pulled beside it slowly and ground to a halt. Staring George in the face was his brother’s name on the locomotive next to them.
“George told me later that day, ‘I knew he’d come to see me, mummy,'” she said.
Debi thought long and hard before deciding to commit Ollie’s story to book form. Mother’s Day weekend, she said, she learned that a publisher had picked up the option to publish “All Aboard,” the story of Ollie the boy and of Ollie the train — and the magic both have provided for so many people.
“What a Mother’s Day present,” Debi said.
She said she uses the train analogy throughout the book “because it’s a journey.”
“It starts with Oliver’s journey, being diagnosed, his passing and the naming of the train,” Debi said. “The whole thing, it’s quite an amazing journey…how this all came to be.”
“All Aboard” will be published this fall.