In my previous post, I detailed how I was able fend off the dragons from my daughter’s nightmares.  Recently, I was reminded that the story begins similarly for families all across the world.  Somewhere, a boy cries out for his mother, but she is unable to calm his fears.  A girl beckons for her father to rescue her, but her dragons cannot be tamed or dismissed with a silly story.  The nightmares will haunt these children well beyond bedtime.

Mercer University was (and still is) small enough that notable people were known across campus.  Jenny was one of those.  The year prior to my entrance to Mercer, Jenny served as a teaching assistant (TA) to a class of freshmen that included a brilliant young lady named Kelley.  When I stepped onto campus, I heard the name, knew who she was, but our paths rarely crossed.  Jenny graduated, moved on.  I did become friends with her sister, Nikki, though.  So on occasion, I heard the name.  In my world, she was nothing more than a face in the crowd, or a word in the conversation.

A few years ago, I found Kelley sitting at her computer with tears in her eyes.  She had been following a number of stories on-line and discovered that Jenny and her husband, Tre’, had just found out that their oldest daughter was diagnosed with cancer.  With passion and care, Kelley has followed their story from the sidelines.  One evening, Kelley read aloud to me one of the most heart-wrenching, poetic posts that I have ever encountered.  Jenny wrote that Catie was no longer able to fight the cancer that had ravished her young body.  We did not have words for each other, so we sat in silence.  Both of us shed tears for a little girl that we had never met.

I cannot pretend to wrestle with the questions that Jenny and Tre’ have had to handle.  My heart has never encountered the range of emotions that they have experienced.  What I do know is that they are two very brave and passionate individuals.  Their story is brutal yet beautiful.  Their experiences are unique yet there are thousands more experiencing the same thing each day.  When many would fall and surrender to the weight of the trials, they stood up and began to roar in the face of adversity.  As they have mourned the loss of their daughter, they have picked up the weapons that they’ve been given and are continuing the fight against childhood cancer.

On my blog, I write about a bunch of silliness and nonsense because that’s mostly what is inside of me.  But there is one thing that I am passionate about.  I think that each child should be able to experience their childhood with joy, innocence, and passion.  Unfortunately, this world brings them sorrows, it robs their innocence, and it offers them indifference.  But a young girl named Catie taught me that seeds of joy and laughter always remain.  Innocence can be cultivated on many fronts.  Passion runs deep in the veins of these little ones.

Whether it is through cancer research, adoption, or spending time with those in your community, please give to the children that so desperately need it.

http://catiescureclassic.com/