NORFOLK, Va. (WTKR) — A summer night spent at the ballpark is an easy way to pass the time by and unwind from the stresses in life.
For Miah Carmine and Colton Hartraft, a trip to a Tides game on Wednesday night meant just a little bit more.
"I get to watch my first baseball game here at the field," said the eight-year-old Carmine. "And I get to do it with my buddy Colton."
The two friends, who carry a big brother-little sister relationship, first met in the toughest of circumstances in their lives. Hartraft was diagnosed with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of soft tissue cancer, in 2023.
A few months later, Carmine learned she had brain cancer and would need treatment at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.
"I saw (Colton) him in a chair, and he had no hair," Miah remembered. "So I said, 'Mom he has no hair just like me.'"
"I was in the middle of getting chemo so I was a little out of it," Colton, now 17-years old, said. "She comes up to me and says, 'What's your name?' And I was like, 'Who is this coming up to me in the middle of a clinic?'
Miah quickly took to Colton, and soon the two began sitting with each other through every chemotherapy session, learning more about each other.
"She loves playing video games. She's always talking to me about Fortnite, Roblox, all the new trendy games," Colton said. "It's gotten to me, I'm starting to play the games with her."
"On Fortnite, he's beaten me on some one v. one, but I have beaten him a couple times," Miah said.
Hartraft finished his treatment last December, with his new friend front and center at his bell-ringing ceremony.
"Having someone like Miah come see what I've been through, help me ring the bell and support me through that," Colton said, "that was an awesome moment."
"He was the one who told me to be brave and that, 'You don't have to be afraid of this because you are strong," Carmine said. Miah is still in treatment, but doctors are hopeful that her tumor can be surgically removed.
The Casey Cares Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides critically ill children with uplifting activities, reached out to the Hartraft family this spring about an opportunity to go to a Tides game and get a behind the scenes tour with the umpires of the game.
Offered more tickets than they initially needed, it was an easy choice to get the Carmines to come along as well.
"Happy to meet the umpires, and they gave us balls and let me try on all the gear," Miah said. "I'd say this is the best time of my life."
"Just being here with Miah, seeing the game and watching everything unfold, you couldn't ask for anything more," Colton said.
They tossed the ball around on the diamond together before watching a 5-4 Norfolk win from their seats down the left field line. For this pair of friends, a night at the ballpark is a time to get away from stresses.
Wednesday's trip, though, was a celebration of just how far they've come in their battles and how important it's been to have a friend in their corners.
"I would never have found the bravery that I have right now to go through chemo if it wasn't for him," Miah said.
