Sick Tri-Cities boy gets his Make-A-Wish dream for Christmas

In talking to Hideki “Deki” Long, you discover a typical 6-year-old.

His favorite food is “legs” — as in the baked chicken variety. He loves Paw Patrol, his excitement over a robot toy that talks AND moves is infectious, and he hopes to get a big car he can drive for Christmas.

But the chipper Richland first-grader has a harder time these days not breaking down when things don’t go his way, said his mom, Laurie Long.

That’s part of the toll that chemotherapy has taken on Deki’s body. He was diagnosed with leukemia in October 2019, just after he turned 5.

“He had been sick for a few weeks,” his mom told the Herald. “It was some sort of virus and kept bringing him to doctors.”

It took some time to get into their primary care doctor, and when they did the doctor had Laurie and Deki rush off to Seattle Children’s Hospital the same day after blood test results were concerning.

Deki didn’t get to return home for six months. They left behind Deki’s dad, Chris, and the boy’s three older brothers, who didn’t get to visit each other much because neither Laurie nor Chris are able to drive because of health issues.

But now that the Long family is back under the same roof, Deki is being assured the holidays will go his way.

The Make-A-Wish Alaska and Washington provided the family a real tree, decorations, wrapping supplies and gifts for the entire family. They also received a gift card to a grocery store for their holiday meal.

“I used to have a crummy fake (tree),” Laurie said. “It was the only one I could afford, and we had to rig it up to get it to stand up.”

Deki’s illness is not the first struggle the family’s faced.

His diagnosis came nine years after she and her high school sweetheart husband, lost an infant daughter to SIDS when she was 2 months old and another daughter died more than a year later, just five hours after birth from a rare medical condition.

Laurie has had to quit her job to be with Deki in Seattle during his treatment.

Chris also is unable to work because of health issues, leaving the family without an income. Laurie has been unable to work during the pandemic because of the risk of bringing COVID home.

“We’ve worked with so many charities, I don’t know what we would do without them,” she told the Herald.

This year’s tree is decorated with ornaments Laurie made in honor of their two daughters and other trimmings sent by the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Over the weekend, Deki and his three brothers all dressed in matching jammies got to open their gifts from Make-A-Wish and discovered Hot Wheels, Mario Cart tracks, Star Wars toys and tree-shaped treats.

Just what he wanted — a car to drive.