Four-year-old Remi Floro had been counting down to one night for a long time.
His favorite band, Twenty One Pilots, was coming home to Columbus, Ohio, for a show at Ohio Stadium on Saturday, October 17.
Remi and his mom had tickets. Then his cancer came back.
What happened next has people all over the internet reaching for tissues.
A Little Superfan With a Big Fight
Remi lives in Port Clinton, Ohio, a lakeside town more than two hours from Columbus.
He is a true Twenty One Pilots superfan. These days, though, most of his jam sessions happen inside a hospital room.
Remi is battling relapsed T-cell leukemia at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, according to WBNS 10TV.
He was just two years old when he was first diagnosed, the Port Clinton Beacon reported. His last two years have been full of doctors and hospitals.
His mom, Payton Herevia, has been with him through all of it.
She has talked openly about one part of childhood cancer most people never see. The loneliness.
Keeping Remi safe while he fights leukemia means keeping him away from the world most of the time, the Beacon reported.
They often don’t see friends. They limit time with family. It can be a lonely life for a little boy and his mom.
So when a chance came to feel part of something bigger, it meant everything.
The Night a Whole Town Wore Gold
Back on September 25, Port Clinton High School held a Gold Out for Childhood Cancer Awareness at its football game against Huron.
Remi wasn’t just in the stands. He was the honorary captain.
The bleachers filled with fans in gold cancer awareness T-shirts. Students put gold sparkles in their hair and on their faces and waved gold poms.
Even the Huron fans joined in to celebrate him.
Standing on the field, waiting for Remi to join the team captains for the coin toss, his mom could barely take it in.
“This is amazing. This means everything to us,” Herevia told the Beacon.
“Having everybody be loved all in one place, after being in isolation and quarantine for so long, is everything.”
The shirts raised money for Blood Cancer United. Remi even got to present a check to a representative of the charity.
“Seeing everyone support Remi and show up for him wearing the Remi Strong gear or wearing gold – its everything. Thank you,” Herevia said.
Then, when they got home that night, the evening got even better.
Herevia learned that one of Remi’s tests had come back negative, meaning a leukemia sample was not detected in his blood.
She was careful to explain what that did and didn’t mean on the family’s Facebook page, Rooting for Remi.
“It does not mean Remi is cancer free or that treatment is over. He still needs his bone marrow transplant,” she wrote.
“But this is the news we have been praying for, and it’s a huge step toward transplant.”
A big step. But the hardest part was still ahead.
Remi and his mom had planned to see Twenty One Pilots play their hometown show at Ohio Stadium on October 17.
For a four-year-old superfan, it was the kind of night you dream about.
But when Remi’s cancer relapsed, doctors scheduled his bone marrow transplant for two days before the big show, WBNS reported.
There was no way he could go. They had to sell their tickets.
Any parent can imagine that moment. Telling your little boy the thing he’s been waiting for isn’t going to happen.
For a family that had already given up so much to this disease, it was one more loss.
Then, somehow, word of Remi’s story got back to the band.
And Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph decided that if Remi couldn’t come to them, they would go to him.
A Surprise in a Hospital Room
Shortly before Remi’s transplant, the two members of Twenty One Pilots walked into his hospital room.
No stage. No crowd. No lights. Just two musicians and a little boy who knew all their songs.
They didn’t pop in for a quick photo and leave, either.
“They each spent at least an hour and a half with us and they didn’t make us feel like another family,” Herevia told WBNS.
“They made us feel like friends. And as soon as they left, Remi was like, ‘I love my friends.’ He had so much fun.”
I love my friends. That’s how a four-year-old sums up a visit from two rock stars.
Not famous people. Not celebrities. Friends.
And before the band left, Remi and his mom had one more idea.
They knew Josh likes to wear necklaces on stage. So, taking a chance, they gave him a necklace with Remi’s name on it.
They had no idea if he would ever wear it. It was a long shot, and they knew it.
It was a little gift from a little fan. The kind of thing that could easily end up in a bag backstage and never be seen again.
Remi’s Name Under the Stadium Lights
On Saturday night, Twenty One Pilots took the stage at the ‘Shoe, as Ohio Stadium is known.
The show was being called the biggest U.S. headline performance of the band’s career.
Remi wasn’t in the crowd. He was in his hospital room at Nationwide Children’s, where his fight was still going on.
And then his mom’s phone started going off.
People were sending her videos from the show. They all said the same thing. Look at Josh’s neck.
He was wearing Remi’s necklace. On stage. At the biggest U.S. headline show of their career.
“It was amazing. It honestly like blew me away,” Herevia said.
“It was such a good feeling and it made Remi happy.”
Think about that for a second. A stadium packed with fans from near and far.
And around the drummer’s neck, the name of one little boy who couldn’t be there.
Fans Who Wouldn’t Let Him Be Forgotten
The band wasn’t the only one thinking about Remi that weekend.
Fans made sure he was not forgotten, either.
All weekend long, gifts arrived at his hospital room, WBNS reported. Friendship bracelets. And even confetti from the show itself.
So in a way, a little piece of that night made it to Remi after all.
His mom says the support has given her son a much-needed boost.
“We’re just blanketed in love and it’s amazing. We’re so blessed,” she said.
Blanketed in love. It’s a beautiful way to describe what happens when strangers decide a child’s fight is their fight too.
Remi still has a long road ahead. Transplant recovery is hard, and his family has never pretended otherwise.
But he is not walking that road alone.
He has a mom who has been by his side since he was two.
He has a whole hometown that showed up in gold.
And he has two new friends in his very favorite band.
His family shares updates on his journey on the Rooting for Remi Facebook page.
If this story made you smile, say a little prayer or send some love Remi’s way. Then share it, so more people can root for Remi too.
Sometimes the biggest stage in the world isn’t a stadium. Sometimes it’s a hospital room with two friends and a necklace.
