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All 7-year-old Gabriel Singleton wanted was to meet his hero. At such a young age, the boy had already been through so much. His battle with cancer went from bad to worse when it spread from his stomach to his bone marrow and bones. The 2nd grader had to undergo multiple chemotherapy treatments as well as stem cell transplants.
Someone that Gabriel always looked to for strength was Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, because he’s “strong and brave”, according to Gabriel. The young boy, who liked to go by “Tater” especially loved watching the Fast and Furious movies, because The Rock plays a police officer in them, and Tater was a big fan of police officers.
After undergoing chemotherapy, Tater lost all of his hair, which often made him feel insecure. "He was kind of embarrassed about his bald head. So I would pull up The Rock's Instagram account and I'd say, Look! The Rock is bald and he's so strong and he's awesome. You're just like him." his mother, LuLu Singleton said.
That’s why Lulu and Tater decided to post a photo on social media explaining Tater’s story in the hopes that The Rock would see it, and realize what an amazing fan he had.
It worked! Not only did The Rock discover Tater’s story, but he even paid the super fan a visit.
“Tater! Guess what buddy? I'm coming to meet you!! I want you to be my special guest on our #BAYWATCH set in Savannah, GA. Everyone on set is excited to meet you…” The Rock wrote on his Instagram account.
The two spent the entire day on the Baywatch set together, and The Rock gave Tater his very own poster! The mega popular actor even donned a t-shirt that read: “Live Like Tater”. Despite all of The Rock’s success, he believes that children like Tater are the ones we should be looking up to.
“I can tell you this with all my heart and soul that meeting lil' Tater and all these little kids over the years who for some reason far unbeknownst to me, look at me as their hero - is a thousand times way more important than any movie or any ‘thing’ I could ever do or accomplish in my life.”
Tragically, little Tater lost his battle with cancer not too long after meeting his hero. It is truly heartbreaking to think of what his family is going through, but it must bring them some comfort to know that he got to have one of his biggest wishes come true.
The Rock took to his Facebook account to express his feelings about the loss of such a special boy:
“I believe everything happens for a reason - but sometimes it requires us to have faith to look deeper to know what they are. A few days ago Lil' Tater passed on, earned his angel wings and is no longer in pain. Our strength and love go out to Tater's mom, dad and sisters whom I had the privilege of spending time with on our set of Baywatch. As a dad, I'd do anything to put a smile on my girl's faces and Tater's mom and dad did everything they could to make this little boy smile. He sure did and it was beautiful. And we all smiled with him.”
While this story is not the happiest one, it is amazing to see actors taking the time to make sick children smile and feel special for a day. We’re sure Tater’s day on set was nothing short of incredible.
