My lifetime soundtrack love affair with music struck its first note with me as a nine-year-old kid, in 1967, when I heard Snoopy and the Red Baron.

It was a catchy, uplifting tune.

Every Christmas I hear that chorus:

“Christmas bells those Christmas Bells,

Ring out from the land

Asking peace throughout the land

And goodwill to man.”

One has to wonder if someone from Alberta Health Services might have heard that song and did some festive thinking. Because on Friday, AHS announced it is bringing back a special bell to the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

News last week rang out in a concerning way that AHS had halted the bell-ringing ceremony for Stollery cancer patients in remission caught the attention of many folks, including my very good friend, Sun columnist Lorne Gunter. In a Wednesday piece, Lorne wrote about the decision, suggesting that it was wrong.

And I agree.

The bell-ringing ceremony is for those patients and their families to celebrate the end of treatment.

The reason AHS gave for the decision to silence the bell was to protect other young immunocompromised patients.

We cannot debate that governance.

Further, a bell would be given to the child to ring at home.

OK … but.

When a young child with rings the bell after battling cancer, it brings applause in a hospital ward: something not heard very often, if at all.

It becomes contagious. But in a non-medical way.

Other young patients can grab some inspiration from seeing fellow patients achieve a clean bill of health.

I also think there’s something profoundly meaningful when you can celebrate a significant win on the battlefield.

Think of a sports team who wins a championship on the road.

Everyone looks forward to the tickertape parade down the main drag in their hometown.

That’s important. Sure is.

Yet, I think there’s something to be said — and written — about sharing the moment with the........

© Edmonton Sun