ARKHAM – With the doctors at St. Mary’s giving her only weeks to live with an extremely rare infection, the outlook was grim for 8-year-old Olivia Rayburn fulfilling her lifelong dream. However, thanks to the efforts of the Arkham Make-A-Wish chapter, funded by local philanthropist Carl Sanford, Olivia’s dreams may yet come true.

“All I ever wanted was to be turned into rifle ammo,” Olivia said, holding up drawings of herself she made in crayon. One showed various bullet casings with three arrows pointing to them and the words “Me”, “Olivia’s body” and “I Dream to be this Bullet” written after each arrow. Another drawing showed Olivia lying sick in a hospital bed with several rounds of rifle ammo, a big heart draw around the whole scene.

“We wondered who in Arkham could help make this dream happen,” said Carl Sanford. “After months of searching, we were worried we would never find someone in time who could do this before Olivia passed. Turns out we had no need to worry. Someone in our own police department was capable of doing this the whole time.”

There was not a dry eye in the room as local cop Tommy Muldoon met with Olivia and explained to her that he would be the one who would make her dreams come true. Tommy even let Olivia hold his rifle, Becky, to show Olivia what gun she would be shot out of after she passed. An excited Olivia held Becky close to her chest and whispered, “I’ll be inside you soon”, before closing her eyes and peacefully falling asleep with Becky still in her arms.

Olivia died from her infection mere hours later and was promptly turned into ammo by Tommy Muldoon. Her final wish was fulfilled in a poignant ceremony held at a chapel inside St. Mary’s before a crowd of friends and family.

Any readers who would like to make a donation to the Arkham Make-A-Wish chapter are directed to get in touch with Carl Sanford by telephone or in person. Carl Sanford would like to remind our readers that every donation will help more dreams come true for sick children.