Boy hears back from 'Heaven'
Brantford student, 11, gets reply after sending 'touching letter' to God
May 31, 2009

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Bob Mitchell
STAFF REPORTER

When Bailey Pinto tied a letter to God to a helium balloon and sent it flying into the sky, he hoped but never dreamed the Almighty would write him back.

Bailey, 11, of Brantford, Ont., asked God in the letter what it was like in heaven and whether miracles happen. Bailey's father, Paul, has served in Kosovo and Bosnia with the Canadian Forces and the boy is worried because his father is expected to join a unit in Afghanistan next March.

While God never replied, a Brampton criminal lawyer did, and their unlikely paths have created an experience neither will forget.

It was actually Gary Batasar's wife who found the mysterious letter inside a zip-lock bag on the driveway of their Brampton home earlier this month.

"It was such a touching letter that I knew I had to try to give him a reply that he deserved," said Batasar, who has defended drug dealers and killers.

Batasar also had T-shirts made and he sent them to Notre Dame, the boy's school in Brantford. The T-shirts have a child holding a pink balloon and looking up into the air with the words "Dear God. What is it like it heaven?"

Batasar initially thought about buying pizza for Bailey's Grade 6-7 class, where all 26 students wrote letters to God as part of a project.

"But I wanted something they would remember for a long time," said Batasar, who has three young children. "I think that over 100 years have passed since the famous 'Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus' letter. Perhaps this will have the same kind of snowball effect like – Yes, Bailey, there is a God."

It has been three weeks since the students sent their letters into the air but Bailey is the only one to receive a reply.

"I was so surprised," Bailey said. "It was amazing that he liked my letter. It was really cool."

In his return letter, Batasar told Bailey he wasn't an authority on God but tried to answer him the way he thought God would reply.

He said heaven was a "wonderful place" filled with love, life and laughter, where children play, families reunite and adults love each other regardless of religion, ethnic origin, class or skin colour.

He also said it was unfortunate people don't always get along on earth, where wars are fuelled by hate, greed and differences.

"It makes no sense," Batasar wrote, suggesting things could be different if people could read Bailey's letter. "They would feel ashamed of themselves that a child of your tender age has more sense than they do."

John McDermid, principal of Notre Dame, called it the "feel-good story of the year at our school."

At first, school officials didn't know what to make of the large parcel that arrived at their doorstep.

"We weren't sure ... what was in the box," McDermid said. "It was addressed to one of our students from a Brampton lawyer with 'Heaven' marked as the return address.

Bailey said he and his younger sister, Alexis, 8, have been tying letters to balloons for a couple of years. Usually, it's just pen pal stuff, asking people to reply.

"We've never got a reply so Bailey was really excited," said his father.

Pinto, 38, has been with the army for 14 years and is a reservist posted in Cambridge. He had been based in Petawawa but moved back to his hometown last August to take some time to be a full-time single father.

Bailey's teacher, Andy O'Brien, has been having his students send letters into the sky for more than a decade, although most have been hellos, not questions to God. Once, when he was teaching in Oshawa, a reply came back from an international school in Panama.

"Nothing like this," O'Brien said. "I know everybody, the entire staff, was touched."