Hamilton and Thea, the Tiny Titan | HFC FEATURE

Every year NHL players hold up cards on their team’s Hockey Fights Cancer nights.

They read: I fight for _.

Every year defenseman Dougie Hamilton writes “Thea.” 

*Thea was an incredible and brave young girl who crossed paths with Hamilton on a chance meeting during a hospital visit. From that moment on, the two formed an unbreakable bond that continued even after her passing.

Below is the story of Thea, the Tiny Titan, and Hamilton, her “big brother” and the beautiful connection they shared.

To our eyes, when we see the Devils' No. 7 smoothly skate through the neutral zone into the offensive zone and wind up his shot that booms through the opposing goaltender, and his arms go up in celebration, his teammates engulf him, we all see Dougie Hamilton. But in Calgary, Alberta, the Roelofsen family also sees something the rest of us don't.

They see the the spirit of their late daughter Thea.

When Hamilton signed his seven-year contract with New Jersey in the summer of 2021, the two previous jersey numbers he wore already held a lot of Devils history. The 27 he wore with the Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames is retired for Scott Niedermayer. And 19 had been Travis Zajac's number for an eternity. It was a number Hamilton wanted to stay away from.

So Dougie sent out a text.

"He texted me," Thea's father, Patrick Roelofsen began the story, "and Dougie asked me, 'What's Thea's favorite number?' I told him it was seven. And he said to me, 'ok, that's my number now.'"

This is the story of bonds that run deep. Between a little 7-year-old girl and a National Hockey League player. It is the story of Thea Roelofsen and Dougie Hamilton, and how profoundly nights like Hockey Fights Cancer and team hospital visits can transform not only the lives of the children but of the athlete as well. Thea was just 7 years old when she met Dougie, then with the Calgary Flames, when the team was making their annual hospital visits. Thea was in the hospital battling a rare form of bone cancer.

The meeting would change both of their lives.

Hamilton is notoriously private, but his friendship with Thea has been one story he's shared with the world. Thea is that important to him. This tough, tiny little titan of a girl was battling her cancer, but finding joy in all she could. Her smile constantly lit up her face, especially with Dougie around. As you learn more about their friendship, you understand better how special of a little girl Thea is, and you'll understand why Dougie has been so open about sharing her story.

"I think that that's the impact that Thea had on their relationship, it's that you want the world to know this child and you want the world to know Dougie's heart, for the world to get just a little picture of that," said Lesley, Thea's mother, praising Hamilton. "To know that he had that impact on her, that he's willing to share this relationship is really so unbelievable and speaks such volumes to their connection and how important it is to have those kinds of stories out there."

"She was one of those people that kind of, she was so infectious and just, her smile and everything, it just drew me to her. She was so special," Hamilton said.

Lesley remembers the very beginning of the story, she was there for that moment. Thea was in hospital and it was around Halloween time. Dougie had dressed up as Princess Leia.

"I was there the moment this connection was made so amazingly," Lesley began. "Thea was in the hospital getting some treatment, Unit 1 at the Alberta Children's Hospital ... Thea was in her room and Dougie was coming into our unit to see another child who wasn't doing very well, who just happened to be across the hall from us. And our door was open, and he kind of just poked his head inside and Thea just shot up in bed and yelled 'My parents love you!'"

From there, Dougie entered the room, Lesley explained, and just started chatting and there was what she described as 'an electric connection' between the two. As parents, Lesley and Patrick were overjoyed their eldest daughter could have a moment of respite from all she was going through but they had no idea how much that singular moment would alter not only Thea's but their whole family's life in the darkest of time.

Shortly after the hospital visits, Dougie and Thea would meet again during the Flames Hockey Fights Cancer night. Then, at a charity event hosted by the Flames, Patrick brought with him a thank you card Thea had written for Dougie. Clearly touched, Hamilton offered his personal phone number to Patrick and soon Thea and Dougie were Snapchatting. As the family explained, it was a small escape from an otherwise difficult, exhaustive routine for their 7-year-old.

"As much as it was probably a small gesture to him," Patrick shared, "it was an incredible distraction for Thea and what she was going through."

"When all their days seem so hard," Lesley added, "I just remember all the great days, and Dougie was certainly part of that. Some of the greatest times she would light up would be like 'Oh, Dougie is having pizza for dinner!', 'Oh, Dougie's traveling, he sent me a Snapchat of the plane,' and all the fun little moments they would just go back and forth. He would send her moments of his day, what he was doing, what he was eating, they loved to keep track of each other."

"When you see your kid is happy, is coping the best way she can, is finding joy in all the hard things that she's having to go through, that as a parent is what you want," Patrick said. "You want to have this quality of life for your kid. So seeing her have those joyful moments, having those experiences, being excited Snapchatting, I think is the best gift that we could have felt from Dougie."

Patrick also joked that Dougie once made the mistake of asking his tiny titan of a daughter an open-ended question.

"You don't give a girl like Thea an open-ended question like 'What would you like to do?'," he laughed. "She jumped on that opportunity, and she said, 'I want to go to the movies with you, and you have to bring your brother and I'll bring my sister and I'd like to go to the movies.'"

And sure enough one day, Thea and her younger sister Brynn were picked up early from school, and there they were, in a near-empty theatre, taking in the Lego Batman Movie. Just like any good big brother, he helped the little sisters skip school.

"At the time I didn't really get how special it was," Brynn, now 13, said. "I just thought, great I get to go to the movies and skip school. But now, I cherish that so much more because I realize the impact that he had."

"I remember at the end of that movie, we told the girls to say goodbye, (Dougie and Freddie) probably need to go, they've got other things to do," Patrick noted. "And Dougie and his brother were like 'No, we're good. We've got nothing to do.'"

So the unlikely foursome stayed to play arcade games together. That, the family says, was one of the initial indications that this was beyond a feeling of a community obligation, it was just pure generosity and kindness.

That year, Dougie asked what was on Thea and Brynn's Christmas list. Dougie and Freddie made sure those lists were fulfilled. Dougie would visit Thea both at home and in the hospital. They did finger painting together. Patrick recalls that they would run through the halls, and they'd do arts and crafts. Dougie would hang both girls upside down from their feet. It was a true big brother/little sister relationship.

There was also the one time Thea asked Dougie if he would come to her school as a surprise guest for a Read-a-Thon assembly. Next thing everyone knew, Dougie and Freddie were at the elementary school, up in front of all the students, standing beside a beaming Thea and Brynn.

"She was really drawn to the person he is," Patrick said.

"She was a true old soul, a true connector of people," Lesley added. "I think I was amazed. I couldn't really believe that there was a 24-year-old, young guy, and his brother that were taking the time to do some of these extra things that were of their own volition and own time."

Dougie spent the entire afternoon at Thea's school, he played floor hockey with the kids, and went to classes just to hang out and read books for storytime.

"I think that distraction, we've tried to communicate that to him, I don't think you possibly can, as parents, put into words what that meant or express as parents what we saw on our end, the impact that that had," Patrick said. "She didn't see Dougie as a hockey star, she saw him as a big brother"

To this day, Dougie maintains a relationship with the Roelofsen family. Brynn was proudly wearing New Jersey Devils gear during the interview. Dougie continues to check in on Brynn, they Snapchat too. Her friends ask her for Dougie's Snap name, but that's something she cherishes for herself.

Thea's family describes her as a light (in fact the name Thea means 'goddess of light'). She is a guide on how to live our lives with love and positivity.

"She was brought to earth for this short amount of time to teach us all how to live and love (...) and she gets to show us how to share and be kind and do all these things on earth, and it was time for her to go back and be the reigning goddess of light," Lesley shared. "On her journey in her eight years, she enlisted some people to help her, and Dougie and (Hamilton's brother) Freddie were those people (...) so many people felt the love she exuded, she was a special kid. Their time is short but their impact is huge."

When it was clear that Thea's final days were near, Thea was at home and Dougie and Freddie went by the Roelofsen's house to visit with her. No one wanted to think of it as a goodbye, but the unsaid was evident.

That visit, Lesley shared, was on a Saturday. Thea passed away on Monday.

"She was really, really ill and they each brought their Hockey Fights Cancer jerseys and gifted them to Thea," Lesley shared through tears.

"They laid (the jerseys) on Thea's bed by her pillow. It was such a beautiful moment and I know that that was really a hard moment for them. She was barely lucid, deep breathing. Dougie held her hand and just sat with her for a long time. She wasn't terribly aware at that point, but I just thought how beautiful that they would come. That's a hard thing for anyone to do, it just meant a lot to us."

It would be the final moment in the physical world where Dougie and Thea, the Tiny Titan, would be together, but Hamilton keeps her alive in his heart, she's never far from his thoughts, and during Hockey Fights Cancer nights, he continues to honor his friend. Every year he has Thea's name written on his blade during warmups. Sometimes he has special sticks designed for the night. Every year those sticks get shipped to Alberta for the Roelofsen family. They cherish them.

Just as they do every time they see the No. 7 glide along the ice.

"It keeps her alive for us," Lesley said. "And I think that's the thing that we worry about as parents who have lost a child, are people going to remember? It is that other little piece that keeps us all connected and Dougie has never been shy about that. It's precious to us."