Determined Herby Gets Dying Wish, Tries to See All Disneyland at Once

Carl Brown couldn’t decide what he liked best about his visit to Disneyland Thursday.

“Almost everything was my favorite,” he said after an exhausting five hours at the one place he thought he would never visit.

Brown, who prefers to be called Herby, has only a few weeks to live. Six weeks ago, doctors found he has leukemia. His dying wish was to visit Disneyland.

Two weeks ago, Quiet Dreams, an Anaheim-based organization that helps grant dying wishes to adult cancer victims, made arrangements to fly Herby here from his home in Olympia, Wash.

He almost didn’t make it. An ear infection earlier this week prompted his doctor to advise Herby to cancel the trip.

Brown, 27, was adamant about coming, and finally the doctor approved the trip.

He smiled throughout the day, sometimes not knowing what to see next. His younger sister, Donna, cautioned him to take it easy; she said he could catch up today on anything they missed Thursday.

Always, he smiled back at her.

Brown, who has a mental capacity of a person half his age, first chatted and posed for a picture with Mickey Mouse. Then he rode the King Arthur Carrousel. Initially, he was tentative.

“I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I rode anything,” he told his sister.

Minutes later he was rushing to the Flying Dumbo Elephant ride, and then, with Polaroid poised, he went through “It’s a Small World” and emerged with five pretty photographs of the attraction.

But Brown’s buoyancy suddenly took a slide. He felt sick to his stomach and he turned pale. His sister, who said that three weeks ago doctors told the Brown family Herby would only live two more weeks, was distressed.

“It was a shocker. I thought that would be it for Herby,” she said.

But Brown rebounded, although he spent the next three hours in a wheelchair. He had waited too long and dreamed so much about Disneyland. He was determined to continue.

He rode on the upper deck of the Mark Twain steamer and enjoyed the Bear Country Jamboree. Earlier he had said the bears were his favorite. He was delighted that the animated bears in the show sang nothing but sassy, off-key country licks.

He was especially glad to hear the bears’ own rendition of Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” Brown’s favorite song.

Expert on Country Music

“Herby knows everything about country music and every country radio station in (the state of) Washington,” his sister said.

Again, Brown smiled.

He knows he has leukemia and will die. But he does not know that his life will end soon.

“He knows that it is terminal. But he doesn’t know the extent of it. It took him a long time to realize what he had,” said Donna, one of Brown’s four sisters. He also has a brother.

Brown had given up long ago his dream of visiting Disneyland, Donna said.

“He always thought he’d never get here, so he didn’t talk about it,” she said. “But about two weeks ago, he started talking about wanting to come.”

Although Brown has been mentally retarded since birth, he has never been a burden to his family and friends, she said.

Earned Diploma

He went to special schools and earned a high school diploma at 18. For the last nine years he has been self-sufficient. He has worked as a night janitor and lived alone in a small apartment.

Three weeks ago, when the leukemia began to weaken him, Brown moved out of his apartment and into a convalescent home. And friendship is something he extends easily and graciously, Donna said. “He’s got friends everywhere,” she said. “You meet the guy once and he’s your best friend.”

Donna, 24, said her family has come to terms with the specter of Brown’s death. They want him to die happily and naturally.

“He had one chemotherapy treatment. The doctor wanted to give him a second one, but there was a 25% chance it would kill him instantly. My mother said no,” she said. “We are just going to let it happen naturally.

“But it will still be a shock for me when it happens.”

By 3 p.m., Brown was exhausted. He slumped in the wheelchair.

“I got to see a lot of Disneyland and I’m happy,” he said.

And then, remembering the friends who had made the trip possible, he added, “I’m just so grateful . . . to everybody.”