Twin daffodils

Mathis Winkler

The night before her death, Margo, a lung cancer patient, turned to

her nurse to thank him for his care.

“When I get to heaven, I’m going to make sure that God sends you twin

girls,” the woman, a mother of twins herself, told Patrick Nilssen.

A few weeks later, Nilssen learned his wife, Lynette Wilhardt, was

pregnant with twins.

More than six years later, Ashley and Caitlin Nilssen, both 5, came

to Hoag Hospital’s cancer center in Newport Beach on Monday to present

patients with daffodils in vases they’d painted themselves.

As part of the American Cancer Society’s Daffodil Days, which is

expected to raise about $500,000 for the organization, about 3,600 cancer

patients across Orange County received bouquets -- 700 patients at Hoag

alone.

When asked what the twin Costa Mesa residents were doing at the

hospital, Caitlin didn’t have to think long about an answer.

“We’re passing out flowers to people who have cancer,” she said,

joining Ashley in adding that they didn’t really know what “cancer” was.

“It’s an illness,” came some helpful prompting from the twins’ mom.

Stepping into a patient room, where 54-year-old Richard Price sat in a

chair after some blood tests, the girls serenaded Price with an Irish

lullaby.

“Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li, Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Hush,

now don’t you cry,” they sang in unison. “Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

Too-ra-loo-ra-li, Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That’s an Irish lullaby.”

Price, a bone cancer patient who had come in earlier that day, seemed

delighted by the visit.

“I might have to learn that one,” he told Ashley and Caitlin.

When Price, still weak from his latest round of chemotherapy, got on

his feet and tried to get the twins to join him in a bit of step dancing,

the response was a little underwhelming.

“You guys are party poopers,” he said as Ashley and Caitlin turned shy

and refused to move their legs.

After his guests had left the room, Price, whose cancer is curable,

said the flowers had brightened his day.

“It reminds me so much of home,” the Missouri native said. “Once they

start blooming, it’ll be nice. It’s just too bad they’ve got to die.”