The Nail Fairy flies with joy at this children’s hospital. ‘I just want to be magic’
The staff and volunteers at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital bring a variety of mood-lifting activities to kids who are facing childhood illnesses and injuries. Only one of them wears fairy wings and tutus.
Martina Ngo is the Nail Fairy.
For the past decade, Ngo, 34, has been painting the nails of kids, and sometimes their parents, at the Tacoma hospital.
“I want to be magic,” Ngo said. “Some kids are stuck here for 90 days sometimes.”
There’s a routine that sets in during long hospital stays — the same staff, the same pokes and prods.
“I’m different,” she said. “They get more excited because there’s a new face.”
And she arrives at the room of each child with nail polish. Hundreds of nail polishes.
Madison
Four-year-olds are normally dwarfed by the world around them. Madison Harrold looked even smaller in her hospital bed this week, surrounded by her parents Patricia and Brian, beeping machines and medical personal.
All of that faded into the background when Ngo entered the girl’s room. Madison decisively picked out five colors — one for each nail — and glitter, of course. She picked purple for one, she explained, because it’s one of her father’s favorite colors.
“I like the sparkle ones,” Madison said. “My mom likes the sparkle ones.”
At their Bremerton home, it’s mom who paints Madison’s nails.
“I have special nail polish because I put my hands in my mouth,” she explained to Ngo.
When Ngo told the girl she’d be able to keep all the nail polish bottles, Madison’s face looked like Christmas morning had arrived early.
For sanitary reasons, Ngo uses only unopened bottles for each child, and they get to keep all of them.
Professional
Ngo, who owns Charme Natural Nails Studio in Tacoma’s Proctor District, can paint a set of nails in just seconds. It wasn’t long after she opened her business that she noticed how kids joyfully came to her shop to get their nails done. She also had several clients who worked at Mary Bridge.
It didn’t take Ngo, who believes in giving back to her community, long to put the two together. She contacted Lou Ann League, the hospital’s child life coordinator.
“I told her, I’d love to be a volunteer, but I want to do something a little different,” Ngo recalled. “I wasn’t sure if nail polish was allowed in the hospital, but Lou Anne talked to the higher ups, and they’re like, yeah, nail polish is totally fine.”
At first, she came twice a month. If her visit coordinated with a Seahawks game day, she’d wear blue-and-green fairy wings and tutus. Post COVID, the hospital instituted different rules for volunteers, and now she comes once every three months.
Family connections
Lara and Dan Wood met when they were kids, at a camp for children living with diabetes. The now married couple live in Olympia with their 9-year-old daughter, Sage. Dan was diagnosed at age 10, Lara at age eight.
When Sage started complaining of thirstiness, they immediately knew what was wrong. The Olympia family headed straight to Mary Bridge. Doctors there diagnosed her with type 1 diabetes, the same condition that her parents have.
“It is not a fun thing, to come to the hospital,” Lara said. “But you know what? To have little bright spots in the middle of two really hard days matters, doesn’t it, Sage?”
Sage nodded in agreement before choosing a blue-green color theme for her nails.
“It kind of looks like a mermaid design,” Ngo said. “OK, mom’s turn.”
Lara chose a complimentary purple color for her nails.
Outside Sage’s room, Dan said the couple face the long road of helping their daughter adjust to living with diabetes.
“That’s probably the hardest part,” he said. “For us to do it is one thing. We can handle our stuff. But when it’s your own child, that changes things quite a bit.”
Dan saw his daughter’s mood lighten immediately when Ngo entered the room.
“Any distractions like this really makes a difference,” he said.
Building relationships
When she was visiting Mary Bridge twice a month, Ngo would have regular clients. Some of those kids were in for a long haul.
Parents would become friends, and children would look forward to her visits. She’s seen her clients grow and beat challenging conditions, like childhood cancer. One 3-year-old clearly viewed Ngo as a role model.
“She came up to me and she was like, when I grow up, I want to be the Nail Fairy,” Ngo recalled.
Tacoma family
Teenage patient Natalie Brown is dealing with a small bowel obstruction, according to her mother, Jen. Along with dad Chris, the Tacoma family faces a week in the hospital, maybe longer. Natalie was hospitalized 18 months ago for the same problem.
“I think she’s old enough now, at 13, to kind of take in how serious it could be,” Jen said. Staff and volunteers at the hospital have played electronic and board games with her, dispensed books and involved her with other activities.
It’s all helped to lighten her mood, but Natalie, a teen of few words, said her hospital stay was, “not fun.” She did, however, like her freshly painted nails.
“They’re pretty,” she said.
Tats, too
Ngo is always looking for donations of new, unopened bottles of nail polish. She recently posted a plea on Facebook.
“So many packages came to my UPS box, the (staff) lady thought that I had a shopping issue,” Ngo said.
While plenty of boys opt to get their nails painted, too (they prefer darker or Seahawks colors), they also like the temporary tattoos Ngo applies.
The children are what has fueled her 10-year-long mission.
“I just want to show up, bring some joy, paint some nails,” Ngo said. “But it’s become this bigger thing that I could have never imagined happening.”
This story was originally published November 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
