A terminally ill man’s dying wish was to meet President Donald Trump, and despite the slim chances of such an event actually occurring, his request was granted Monday with the help of his sister.
Jay Barrett, 44, of West Haven, Connecticut, is a huge Trump supporter. He also has cystic fibrosis. Barrett left Yale New Haven Hospital on Sunday to start palliative care at his sister’s home, which is when he expressed his wish to talk to the president.
Barrett’s sister, Bridgette Hoskie, describes herself as “100-percent Democrat,” according to the New Haven Register, but that didn’t stop her from helping to fulfill her brother’s dreams. She apparently took to social media to spread the word, encouraging friends and family to keep sending emails to the White House, but made sure her brother wouldn’t suspect anything.
Her requests read, “Please log onto whitehouse.gov and send a request to the president asking him to contact my brother. He loves Trump and it’s on his bucket list. He’s currently in Yale’s ICU so this happening would be amazing. Use your info and my brothers in the message.”
Well, everyone’s efforts panned out when Barrett received a phone call from the White House just a day later. Watch the video below:
Hoskie originally said her brother “would be thrilled just to get an acknowledgment from Trump,” but what he got was so much better. Barrett’s phone conversation with Trump started with Barrett exclaiming, “Holy Christ.”
“Hi Jay,” the president started. “You look handsome to me. I just saw a picture of you. You look great.”
The president then expressed his hope that Barrett might someday be able to attend a rally, to which Barret said that if Trump could pencil him in, he’d find a way to get there. “You know what? When I’m up around that territory, and I know where you live—I know it well. . . . You’ll be front and center, Jay.”
Trump also mentioned a letter he wrote to Jay that he sent to his sister, saying he’d read a story about Barrett and he knew he wanted to talk to him. “You’re my kinda guy,” Trump said. (RELATED: 10-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Who Appeared At State Of The Union Reacts To Trump Shout-Out)
Barrett went on, “Mr. President, through thick and thin — you know there’s been a lot of thicks, and there’s been a lot of thins — I support you.”
The president continued with words of hope for Barrett, saying, “We love you, man,” and telling him not to give up hope — that the power of medicine has surprising outcomes sometimes and they’d be talking “10 years from now.”
Hoskie told the Register that her political views didn’t get in the way of wanting to help her brother cross this meeting off his bucket list: “My brother is very conservative, but politics aside, I think in a family religion and politics are off the table. He hasn’t always had it easy and been able to do the things other people do. But yeah, he’s my baby brother — time is chasing us.”
“He’ll say, ‘Trump is my president,'” Hoskie continued. “He loves the fact that Trump speaks his mind.”
Barrett’s story caught the attention of Trump’s HUD official, Lynne Patton, who is from the New Haven area and who has arranged plans to bring Barrett a gift from the Trump family.