Meet 4 year-old Ollie Jones, the son of Lloyd Jones. Ollie was simply a young boy who loved superheroes, his favorite being Spider-man. Unfortunately, Ollie was diagnosed with leukodystrophy, which soon led to his death.
Despite his passing, Mr. Jones still wanted to make sure Ollie could be commemorated by his favorite hero. Thus, he sent a request to Disney to request that Spiderman could be etched onto his son’s grave.
However, despite Disney being known as the “happiest place on earth,” they didn’t deliver Mr. Jones happy news. They had denied his request. Disney noted that the reason for declining was because they wanted to “preserve the same innocence and magic around our characters that brought [Ollie] such joy.”
To compensate, Disney did offer Mr. Jones a hand-inked celluloid image of the superhero.
Mr. Jones was shocked as he genuinely thought that Disney would be fine with his request. He thinks of his son’s last moments, Ollie was clutching the Spiderman action figure they had given him as he was admitted to hospital for the last time.
What do you think? Do you think Disney was right in trying to preserve the “magic”? Or should they have allowed the etching? Tell us in the comments.