‘Right there with him’: Dad dances outside son’s window during cancer treatments

Fort Worth, Texas – A devoted dad can be found performing a one-man dance party every Tuesday in the parking lot at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Chuck Yielding told TODAY Parents that he and his 14-year-old son Aiden, who was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia earlier this year, are “inseparable.”

So when Yielding, 48, learned he couldn’t join Aiden during his weekly chemotherapy treatments due to coronavirus visitor restrictions, he found a creative way to connect with the teen.

“He’s really been struggling with bone pain and it’s hard not to be able to reach out and touch him,” Yielding said. “But what I can do is make him laugh.”

While Aiden’s mom, Lori Yielding, a nurse anesthetist at the hospital, holds his hand, Chuck Yielding busts a move outside Aiden’s window. If Aiden is feeling up to it, he’ll join in too.

“My dad always cheers me up when I’m having a bad day,” Aiden told TODAY Parents. “We’ve been creating our own dances since I was little. We get down with it!”

When Yielding isn’t dancing, he works remotely on his laptop from a lawn chair outside the hospital during his son’s treatments.

“I want him to know I’m there,” Yielding explained. “I’m right there with him always.”

Yielding and Aiden are currently enjoying viral fame after the hospital posted heartwarming footage of them dancing on its Facebook page. The clip currently has more than 66,000 shares.

“That’s a real man that loves his child!” wrote one person.

Added another, “GREAT JOB to that daddy!! Way to be present when you can’t be physically there!”

Lori said Aiden was having a tough time the day the video was filmed, so she brought him to a nearby window and called her husband.

“I knew Chuck could cheer Aiden up,” Lori told TODAY Parents.

Moments later, Aiden was smiling.

“Their bond is so unbelievably strong,” Lori said. “I mean you see them dancing, mirroring each other. They’re just two peas in a pod.”

Aiden’s prognosis is good, and he has more than two years of treatments ahead. Until there’s a COVID-19 vaccine, you can find his dad in the parking lot dancing.

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