Foligno seeks purpose, not sympathy

— -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Walking to the edge of tragedy creates a special appreciation for normal, so the best thing about this first birthday party was that it was perfectly normal.

It was a party held on a Sunday, an off day for the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was also the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving, which allowed friends and family to join in from Ottawa. The celebration included the entire Blue Jackets team along with their wives and girlfriends in the Upper Arlington condo of Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno. It was a day to celebrate the life of Nick and his wife Janelle's first child, their angel Milana.

The presents piled up near the front door, filling the entrance with toys. There was a new castle for her dolls and a ton of stuffed animals and books. Kids played on the carpet and colored pictures, while dads watched football on the flatscreen in the living room. One-year-old Milana mashed her way through a birthday cake, while the parents enjoyed takeout. Normal. Wonderful.

"The biggest thing, we just wanted to thank them for being there for us the entire year of her life," Janelle told ESPN.com, sitting in her dining room a few feet away from Nick, the captain of one of the All-Star teams this weekend in Columbus.

The wall behind Janelle was empty while she spoke, but during the birthday party it was filled with pictures, some of them Janelle initially didn't want taken. She was hesitant because they included oxygen tubes and a very sick Milana, moments of her daughter's life she wasn't sure she wanted documented or remembered.

One year later, she's glad those photos exist because they are part of Milana's story. Just like the scar that takes up Milana's torso from when the doctors opened up her chest is part of her story. The scar is healing beautifully, much in the same way the Foligno family has healed.

"We had a wall of pictures from birth until 1 year old," Janelle said. "It painted such a beautiful picture of what was her beginning and her reality, to how she developed as a toddler. We had all those photos. Everybody could look through those and see how far she'd come."

Nick and Janelle Foligno don't often tell the entire story of just how close they came to losing their first child. They're not looking for sympathy. They tell it only because they're so passionate about the innovative surgery performed by Dr. Ram Emani at Boston Children's Hospital. A man who is a saint in the Foligno home, the man they credit with saving the life of their daughter.

Boston Bruins, and there was at least one fan at TD Garden thrilled to see it. Emani brought his 10-year-old son Vishnu, a basketball fan now developing a love for Blue Jackets hockey.

After the game when all the Bruins fans left the building, Emani, Vishnu and his best friend, Rajan, walked down the stands to near the visitors' bench. Showered and dressed after the win, Nick Foligno emerged with a smile to say hello. They took a picture together, and Foligno pulled out his phone to proudly show off Milana.

There she was on the small screen, looking beautiful and doing everything normal girls her age do. One picture, naturally, was Milana standing on ice. There was video of her dancing in the house.

And when Emani looked up, he saw a look of pure joy on Foligno's face.