Saturday, January 31, 2009

Another tear jerker thank you

Nearly 5 years ago, my daughter Wendy Ford and her family (husband
Thomas, 10 year old Haley and 8 year old Patrick) attended a birthday
dinner for my other daughter Ronni. As they were on their back to
their Scottsdale, AZ home, on a Wednesday night at 8 p.m., a drunk
driver crashed into their van at nearly 60 mph. My daughter Wendy
died at the scene and little Haley died 20 days later at Phoenix
Children's Hospital as a result of her severe head injuries.
Fortunately, both Thomas and Patrick survived the physical impact of
the crash. The young 27 year old drunk driver is now serving 18 years
in prison.

For 20 days we hoped and prayed that our little Haley, an
accomplished dancer, would survive. When she ultimately succumbed to
her brain trauma, our family was asked, very lovingly by Donor
Network of Arizona, if we would be willing to donate her organs.
Without much hesitation, we agreed. After being taken off life
support for a very short time, Haley was declared legally brain
dead. For the next 24 hours, she was once again given oxygen to
maintain her healthy organs for transplant. Her heart was donated to
a 10 year old girl in California and her other organs to unknown
older recipients.

By now you may be wondering why such a sad story has been included in
your Project Linus newsletter..
..the reason is, during that 24 hour
"wait" period of determining who would be a match for Haley's organs,
our precious darling was given a light blue crocheted blanket from
YOU, Project Linus... it was heartwarming, even in a time of our
worst sorrow, to know that someone, who would be forever unknown to
our family, had taken the time to lovingly create this cover for little Angel.

**************



1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This made me cry. Much love to your family.

1:37 AM  

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