Children

Girl, 10, Dies 7 Hours After Being Granted Dying Wish

Friday, June 19, 2009


HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Colby Curtin got her final wish.

The 10-year-old cancer patient was too sick to go to the theater to see the Disney-Pixar movie "Up," so an employee of the studio flew to her house with a DVD copy — which she watched just seven hours before she died, her mother said.

While waiting for the movie to arrive on June 10, Colby's mother, Lisa, said she asked her daughter: "Do you think you can hang on?"

"I'm ready (to die), but I'm going to wait for the movie," she told The Orange County Register her daughter replied.

"Up" is the animated tale of a grumpy old man who, after his wife's death, tries to fulfill their joint dream of visiting South America by tying thousands of balloons to his house and floating away.

"When I watched it, I had really no idea about the content of the theme of the movie," Colby's mother told the newspaper. "I just know that word 'Up' and all of the balloons and I swear to you, for me it meant that (Colby) was going to go up. Up to heaven."

Colby, who was diagnosed with vascular cancer in 2005, saw previews for the film in April and eagerly awaited the movie. A family friend called both Pixar and Disney, which owns the animation studio, and the studio agreed to send someone to Colby's house in Huntington Beach, California, the next day with a copy for a private screening.

Colby was unable to open her eyes to see the movie so her mother described the scenes. After the movie ended, her mother asked if Colby enjoyed it. Her daughter nodded, Curtin said.

She died later that evening.





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