You all shared wonderful thoughts - thank you!!!!

Kathy you reminded me of a girl in my high school. Born with very bad spina bifida - doc told her mother she would never walk but she did. Her mom died when she was six years old of cancer and then her dad died when she was twelve years old of a heart attack. She lived with her aunt who took her social security checks and wouldn't give her any money.

She was in my class in high school but almost 2 years older since she stayed back so much from having surgeries. She had a shunt that drained fluid from her brain down into her abdomin and every once in awhile it would get clogged and she'd have to go in again for another surgery.

This one time she was really upset because she had just grown all her hair back and was going to have to shave part of her head. When she came back to school she wore a bandana. This was a catholic high school, so they had started every morning announcing that we should pray for Cheryl over the loud speaker.

The week she came back we were walking down the hall and this girl came the other way and asked why she was wearing that stupid bandana. Cheryl was devasted and I promptly flipped out. This girl was the toughest meanest girl in the school and I didn't care. After I dressed her down she just turned and walked away and never bothered me or Cheryl again.

The highlight of Cheryls junior year was that she went to the prom and she never thought she would. She had to use two metal canadian crutches but she was there dancing. She also use to say she was fat all the time and she wasn't. She had to wear diapers so her bottom looked a little bigger. But I always called her skinny. She loved that so much that she signed her year book skinny.

I often think of her and the trials and tribulations she went through. She was awe inspiring.

Mellors asked what gets me through the day and what inspires me - for me it's the fact that it's just today. It's not tomorrow, it's not yesterday, it's just today. Someone today said that no matter what feelings you have they always pass even the good ones. It's true - you never have anything permenantly so you have to enjoy what you have while you have it.

Tranquility