Mocha milkshake travels 400 miles to fulfil a last wish for hospice patient
Pancreatic cancer patient Emily Pomeranz, 50, had a final wish to have her favourite milkshake
There is nothing like a good friend and a good milkshake.
In a Facebook post that has been shared more than 1,200 times, and liked and loved nearly 4,000 times, a Washington, D.C., man explained how he helped fulfil a dying friend’s wish for a cold and refreshing taste of home.
Emily Pomeranz, 50, was in hospice in Virginia, U.S.A., with pancreatic cancer when her high school friend and fellow Cleveland Heights, Ohio, transplant Sam Klein visited and asked if she needed anything.
“I wish I could have one more Tommy’s mocha milkshake,” Emily told Sam, referring to an iconic restaurant on Coventry Road in the largely Jewish suburb.
Tommy’s Restaurant once was a place for suburban counterculture Clevelanders to meet. Now it serves a more yuppie crowd.
Klein said he contacted the 47-year-old restaurant’s owner, named – you guessed it –Tommy, last name Fello, in an effort to grant Emily what would be one of her last wishes. (She also asked for a Cleveland Indians hat, which Sam also gave her.)
Lots of dry ice, a frozen mocha milkshake, a £93 ($123 UPS) overnight bill and nearly 400 miles later, Emily had her milkshake. Her wide smile and the milkshake can be seen in a photo Sam posted on his Facebook page.
Emily Pomeranz died Friday.
“Seeing her in that picture was just something else, I’ll tell ya. What a reward,” Tommy Fello told the Fox affiliate in Cleveland. “I was so happy it worked. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, and Sam called me and said it worked. We called it the ‘Milkshake Mission,’ or something like that, ‘Mission Impossible.’”
Sam told Fox that he is sure Emily would love the fact that her story is making the rounds and making people feel good.
“She got a lot of momentum out of not only being able to enjoy something as special as a childhood nostalgic milkshake, but the fact so many people were smiling about her,” Sam said. “A lot of people have said ‘this made me feel good’ and I know Emily would love the fact that she’s making people feel good even though she’s not here with us anymore.”
Sam urged people living in or visiting Cleveland to visit Tommy’s and thank him for going above and beyond to get Emily her milkshake.
I want to share a great story with you about a place we all know and love: Tommy’s Restaurant on Coventry (in Cleveland…
Posted by Sam Klein on Monday, 31 July 2017
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
