Rick,

My name is Beau Thistle. I’m a custom shoe artist based in Austin, Texas, and what I do is take people’s stories and bring them to life through artwork they can actually wear. I wanted to start this letter by introducing myself, because I don’t think you’ll fully feel what this piece means until you know that out of every project I’ve ever created, this is one of the most special I’ve ever had the honor of working on.

When Joe first reached out to me, he told me who you are to the people at Cook’s Children’s Hospital. Not just your title, but the way your team talks about you. That you show up on Christmas. On Thanksgiving. That you walk the halls and know people by name, and that everyone who gets to work alongside you calls it a blessing. I want you to know that before I ever picked up a brush for this project, I already felt honored to be making something for you.

Then Joe told me about Mathias.

He explained that Mathias was one of your kids at the hospital, a child who faced cancer with a spirit so bright that he inspired everyone around him, and who you fought for with everything you had. When I learned that Mathias didn’t survive, and that before he passed he had given you a piece of artwork he made himself, sea creatures, each one representing someone who mattered to him, I understood this shoe could not just be a gift. It had to be something worthy of that story.

I studied that artwork closely, and the more time I spent with it, the more I realized Mathias wasn’t just a child with a beautiful heart, he was genuinely a gifted artist. His proportions were spot on. The shading he built into that school of fish showed real, developed skill. And still, the detail that stopped me, the thing I kept coming back to, was that every single sea creature he drew is smiling. Every one of them. That felt like the whole heart of the piece, and I knew it had to be the heart of what I made for you too, so I made it my mission to carry as many of his original details onto the shoe as I possibly could.

So I chose Air Jordan high tops as the canvas, something you could actually wear, something built for a special occasion, so that every time you put them on you’d be reminded of the impact you’re making. I started by priming the shoe with his ocean background first, that deep blue base he laid down by hand. It isn’t perfect in the technical sense, and that’s exactly the point, because you can still see his own brush strokes in it, the marks of a child actually making something. That imperfection is what makes it perfect. From there, I spent close to five hours hand tracing custom stencils for every sea creature in his drawing, working to match not just the shapes but the little shakes and wobbles in his linework, the parts that could only come from a kid’s hand. I wanted every bit of his artistry to carry through onto the shoe.

At the same time, I knew I could never be the original artist, and I didn’t want to be. I wanted this piece to stand as its own tribute, made in memory of him rather than a copy of what he left behind. So I gave each sea creature a soft glow behind it, a kind of halo. Mathias is in heaven now, and to me those animals glowing feels like a reflection of where he is, at peace, one of the angels you were fortunate enough to cross paths with while he was here on earth.

Joe also shared the story behind the words “they know the names of the angels,” and I have to tell you, it struck something in me. I hold my own faith and my own sense of spirituality close, and I’ve had moments in my life that echoed that same feeling. Knowing that story was real, and getting to place those words alongside a set of angel wings on this shoe, meant more to me than I can fully put into words. It felt like something I was trusted to carry carefully.

I placed the Cook’s Children’s Hospital logo on the shoe too, but quietly. I didn’t want it to announce itself. I wanted it woven into the colors of Mathias’s sea world, present, but part of the story rather than separate from it.

But there was one piece of this story that needed a moment all its own, and that’s the clam. In my work, the back of the shoe is sacred ground, it’s where I always put a name, a number, the one detail that matters most. For you, that space belonged to the clam from Mathias’s drawing. Because in his sea, that clam is you. The one who holds everything and everyone together. The one the whole ocean relies on. I believe that was a child’s way of saying thank you, for every doctor, every nurse, every family, every late night and every holiday you gave up to be there. Mathias saw you clearly, even as a kid, and he wanted you to know it.

Getting to bring his story to life through your shoes was one of the most meaningful pieces I’ve ever created. I hope you wear them with pride, Rick. I hope they remind you, every time you put them on, of exactly how much you mean to that hospital, to those families, and to those kids. And I hope you know that even from the outside, as the artist who got to sit with this story for a while, I walked away inspired too.

Thank you for letting me be part of this.

With gratitude, Beau