Young KC hospice patient feels love from Eric Stonestreet, Royals — and a sweet pig

For more than three hours Sunday, a big ol’, droopy-eared Chester White pig from Kansas with the longest of eyelashes and the pinkest of snouts cuddled with Isabelle Sears.

She brushed him over and over and over. The pig’s owner was awed by its gentle manners.

So was Eric Stonestreet, the man who fulfilled Isabelle’s request for the visit.

You see, 22-year-old Isabelle wanted to be a veterinarian.

Then brain cancer found her, again. She is a patient of Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care, at home in the Kansas City area surrounded by family and her pets.

“Yesterday this little pig, courtesy of Larry Wehner and his wife from Rossville Kansas, spent 3 hours in bed with her getting brushed and pampered by Isabelle,” Stonestreet posted, with permission from Isabelle’s family, to his Instagram account on Monday.

“It truly was the most special human and animal moment I’ve ever seen.”

Thousands of people from across the country have sent Instagram greetings to his new friend, including Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, journalist Katie Couric, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” star Nia Vardalos, Stonestreet’s former “Modern Family” co-star Ariel Winter and his fellow Big Slick Celebrity Weekend host Heidi Gardner from “Saturday Night Live.”

“We love you, Isabelle!” Paltrow wrote.

“Sending love & prayers to Isabelle! Thank you for allowing Eric to share your story with all of us. You’re a true inspiration,” wrote Tavia Hunt, wife of Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt.

Stonestreet himself delivered a video message from Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.

He played it for Isabelle on his cellphone.

“Hey, Isabelle. Bobby Witt Jr. here. Just wanted to send you some love. All the Royals are sending you love, too, as well. Just wanted to wish you nothin’ but the best.”

Stonestreet described Isabelle in his post as “about the toughest, sweetest and funniest girl I’ve ever met.”

Her family continues to update loved ones on a Facebook page called “Isabelle’s Fight: Not All Cancer Is Pink.”

“This is to keep everyone updated about my journey with the brain tumor I’ve had since I was five,” it says.

According to Stonestreet, doctors at Children’s Mercy removed the tumor, “and Isabelle lived an active, fun filled-animal loving life. Then in 2021 when she was away at college, studying to one day become a veterinarian, the cancer returned,” he wrote.

“She and her family have been fighting hard ever since. Never giving up hope and Isabelle always making those around her feel special and never complaining.

“She’s now unfortunately has reached the point where she’s out of treatment options.”

Can you help find a pig?

Stonestreet learned of her when the hospice folks contacted him to see if he knew anyone who had a friendly, cuddly pig. “And if I wanted to come too, that would be OK,” Stonestreet wrote.

(Could they have chosen a better contact? Stonestreet raised pigs growing up in western Wyandotte County and in 2021 he teamed up with the National Pork Board to correct some misconceptions about pig farming.)

Wehner, owner of Wehner Farms Showpigs outside Topeka wrote about the visit on his Facebook page, calling it an “honor” to take a couple of his Chester White pigs “for an awesome young lady, Isabelle, to love on.”

“We were hoping they would lay calmly with her for 15-30 minutes. One of the littermate brothers lasted just over 20 minutes before he was getting antsy,” Wehner wrote.

“I took him back outside to the truck and left the other one to lay for a bit more. When we hit one hour, I couldn’t believe he was just chilling on her lap. … 3 1/2 HOURS he laid there and they loved on each other.

“If you don’t believe in a higher power to make this happen, you’re fooling yourself.”

The day before Stonestreet visited, Isabelle’s family posted that she “is home surrounded by everything she loves” and said how her illness has affected her father, Trice, and brother Logan.

“She continues to find strength every single day. The most incomprehensible things have happened to her and she continues to comfort us.

“For twenty two years Trice has catered to her every want and need. He always has the answers and fixes everything. He is tormented every second of the day because he is powerless and can’t make it better.

“The agony in Logan’s eyes while he witnesses cancer consume his sister is unfathomable ... our hearts are suffering. We love her so much. This isn’t fair.”

The family shared the story of Stonestreet’s visit, too, calling him “kind and compassionate.”

“He communicated with Isabelle effortlessly like he had known her for years. He surprised her with a message from one of her favorites. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when she received a hello from Bobby Witt Jr. If you know Isabelle, you know he’s her #1.

“Isabelle deserves all of the things! Thank you will never be enough.”

Stonestreet asked his followers to fill his comment section “with love and support for Isabelle and her family and let them feel love from far and wide. They have, like so many other families, been through too much.

“Let this post forever be a moment of peace, love and goodness for them to cherish from you all.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Stonestreet’s post had received more than 130,000 likes and nearly 9,000 people had left messages for Isabelle.

“Forever grateful for all of this love will never stop fighting!!!” she wrote back.