Amazing Stories

Our Chick-fil-A Birthday Dinner

As you know, we marked Charlotte's 7th birthday on Monday.  The day included laughter, tears, hugs, an honorary mention on WCVE, dinner at Chick-Fil-A, a chocolate milk toast, and a showing of Finding Nemo. Roger and I were touched by the sweet messages we received as well as the generous donations made to the foundation in her honor that day. 


On Friday morning, I turned to Roger and said, "Wow! It sure has been a long week. Monday seems like a long time ago."  He agreed.  Between the emotional exhaustion at the beginning of the week, the Wine Down event on Wednesday in which we raised $1000 for CJSTUF (hurrah!), and the normal business of our jobs, it had proven to be a very long week, indeed.  


Then came Friday.  I ventured off to my job at the Dominion School and Roger had the opportunity to participate in the Moriah McNeil Celebrity Golf Classic to benefit ReeseStrong.  One of the generous patrons of the organization had bought an extra foursome and donated it for use by dads of pediatric cancer patients.  Roger joined Reese's dad and a few other guys for a beautiful day on the links.  

Roger, Walter Klauer, & Emanuel McNeil

Moriah's dad, Emanuel McNeil, is a former NFL football player. He lost his daughter Moriah to cancer in 2004 and organizes this charity golf tournament every year in her honor.  The proceeds benefit a different children's charity annually.  With these connections, it made sense that quite a few NFL players would be hitting the links.  It wasn't until Roger reached the tournament, however, that he realized some of these guys were the same football players who came and sang Frosty the Snowman to Charlotte on a hot summer day when we were holed up in the ASK clinic for a treatment in 2009.  The visit had been a huge hit with Charlotte and had even been featured on the CBS news (briefly).  As Roger talked about this with the football players, many of them mentioned remembering Charlotte.  Then one guy pulled out his phone and showed us this video.  

He has had this video on his phone since 2009.  Roger was floored! 

In the meantime, among my many meetings of the day, I was scheduled to interview a potential instructional assistant for the Dominion School.  The young lady arrived at the scheduled time and we began to talk about her work history and why she was seeking employment with us.  I asked her to say a little bit about why she liked her job and she told me this story. She works at Build-a-Bear. 


"I really love being able to see the happy faces on the children.  A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work with a family that came into our store.  The little girl was about 3 or 4 years old and she was sick.  She came into the store after hours with her best friend and together they made creations for her, her parents, and her best friend. We were so touched by this little girl and found out a few weeks later that she had passed away.  I still think about her a lot and how we were able to make her happy."

Our creations from Build-a-Bear,
including Frosty the Bad-Ass

As I sat there listening to her story, I realized where this was going.  I was near tears as I listened to her accounting of our very own Build-a-Bear visit.  I was thinking, "Should I say something? Is that appropriate?" Finally, I realized I needed to tell her.  I said, "I hope this doesn't upset you, but I need to let you know, that's my daughter you're talking about." I pointed towards the picture of Charlotte on my desk and the girl's jaw dropped to the floor.  She said, "Oh my goodness! That's her! We have her picture in our office at the store and I still think about her and talk about her all the time!"  We both started crying.  


Eventually, we composed ourselves and carried on with the rest of the interview.  On my way home from work, I got a message from Roger that he had something interesting to tell me.  I told him that I had a great story for him as well.  We met up and recounted these stories to each other in disbelief and amazement.  


I don't always believe in "signs" or messages, but perhaps these simple, touching stories delivered to both Roger and myself on the same day are a way of showing us that Charlotte continues to touch people's lives as much in death as she did in life. Of course, I think of our girl every single day. But it warms my heart in unimaginable ways to realize that she had such a profound impact on people who are virtual strangers.  


That, my friends, is the best birthday present anyone could ask for.  Don't you agree?

Six Ways to Honor Charlotte

Hello friends! First of all, for those of us who follow this blog, we apologize for the relative lack of updates. We continue to update our Facebook page and if you have not yet subscribed to our monthly newsletter, I encourage you to sign up. It's probably the best way to stay "in the loop". 

Now that the business stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the calendar. Tomorrow, July 9th, would have been Charlotte's 6th birthday. Understandably, it's been a difficult few weeks as we have anticipated the arrival of this day. Roger is going to post some of his thoughts here tomorrow and I will be sharing more on my personal blog in the days to come. 

For now, I would like to say Thank You for the support that you continue to provide to Roger and myself. Many of you have asked how we plan to honor Charlotte's birthday and how you can help. To that end, I offer you Six Ways to Honor Charlotte.  (special thanks to Chaplain  Sallye at Noah's Children for the inspiration)

1. Read a book. Charlotte loved to read and look at books from an early age. While some children fall asleep with a bed full of stuffed animals, Charlotte would sleep in a bed full of books. 
2. Wear pink or purple. Or both. Capture your inner princess, even if it's only for a day. 
3. Drink a glass of chocolate milk. Charlotte liked to say "Chocolate makes everything better."  We agree. 
4. Watch one of Charlotte's favorite movies. The movies that never left the queue included Finding Nemo, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, and Frosty The Snowman. I can't think of a better thing to do in the heat of summer than think cool thoughts with Frosty.
5. Make a meal for a family in need. When Charlotte was sick, we were blessed with many friends and neighbors who cared for us by supplying an extra meal (or two). It's a special gesture that means so much to a family in crisis.
6. Help us honor Charlotte's memory with a donation to CJSTUF. Every little bit helps. If each of our 2800 (or so) Facebook fans donated only $6 in honor of CJ's birthday, we would be able to provide 33 $500 financial assistance grants to families in need. 

 
Thank you, Charlotte, for blessing us with your time here on Earth. 
We miss you. Every day. 

Radiance from Julia Dollison on Vimeo.

I'm holding my breath...

I'm holding my breath...Charlotte has been on the verge of something for the past two days. I am hoping that it is not a neutropenic fever. They drew her labs today and I probably should have heard by now if there was concern, but she is definitely sluggish and lethargic, fluctuating between warm(ish) and cold/clammy. But no fever. She also needs to poop so I am hoping that is the issue. The lactulose has been administered so we are just waiting.Yesterday and today, we finished radiation in record time. We have spent both afternoons at RMH, mainly in our room. I had some romp n' roll work to do yesterday and today as well as a conference call for work so Charlotte has kept herself busy. Mostly with movies. She got yet ANOTHER gift from one of the nurses yesterday. They gave her a HUGE Frosty the snowman throw blanket that is OH SO soft. Today she asked for Frosty and all the "girls" passed out lyrics and sang along. Right now it's raining. Second day in a row that we've gotten a good, solid afternoon storm. That does really help to clear the air down here. So I don't have much else to report. Please say a prayer that we are NOT headed back into the hospital. I really would not like to bookend our time in Texas with another inpatient stay.

POOP!!!!!!We have said it before but I'll say it again: Hooray for poop! She finally decided to "let go" around dinner time and I'm glad she has a strong diaper! Without getting too graphic, I will just say that it was HUGE. True to form, she is almost instantly more lively and animated. She has been reading her books and playing in our room for the last hour. I'm still not 100% confident we're out of the woods but I am breathing a bit easier. Hooray.