Homeless Boy Asked The Biker To Take Him To See The Ocean Before He Died From Cancer

“She does that sometimes. Forgets me places. Or pretends to forget.” Lucas looked up at me. “Are you really going to take me to the ocean?”

I pulled out my phone. “I’m going to try, buddy. I’m going to try really hard.”

What happened next was the hardest three weeks of my life.

I called Child Protective Services. Explained what happened. Reported that Lucas’s foster mother had abandoned him at a gas station. They sent a caseworker to pick him up and placed him in a different emergency foster home.

Then I started making calls. My club president. Our club lawyer. Everyone I knew who might be able to help.

“You want to what?” my president asked.

“I want to take a dying foster kid to see the ocean. Legally. Properly. With all the right paperwork.”

“Brother, that’s going to be nearly impossible. You’re a single man. A biker. They’re not going to let you take a vulnerable child across state lines.”

“I don’t care how hard it is. That kid asked me. He looked me in the eyes and asked me to help him see the ocean before he dies. I’m not going to let him down.”

The system fought me every step of the way. CPS said no. The foster care agency said no. Lucas’s caseworker said the request was “inappropriate and potentially dangerous.”

But I didn’t stop. My club didn’t stop.

We organized a letter-writing campaign. We got veterans’ organizations involved. We contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation and explained the situation. We reached out to pediatric oncology advocates. We made noise.

The local news picked up the story. “Biker Fights System To Give Dying Boy His Last Wish.” Suddenly everyone wanted to talk about Lucas. About his terrible foster care situation. About the woman who’d abandoned him at a gas station.

The pressure worked.Continue reading…