just copying and pasting to save you guys the trouble of clicking the link...there are some pictures of the little girl in the original thread so you can click if you want to see, but its a sad story so you might not want to. its long, but worth reading, imo.
From: ChicagoTom Send Private Message Add Comment To Profile
Posted: 5 days ago
Member Since: 10/15/07
Posts: 3876
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FRAT WARNING.
So my older sister is a huge Obama fan. Like many 40 year old democratic women in Chicago- she is goo-goo. Well, my sister has two beautiful children, Grace (7) and May (5).
May is a daddy's girl, however, she somehow fell in love with Obama during this election. I think it had something to do with Mommy. Anyhow, about 8 months ago, May was diagnosed with a rare heart disease called "Kawasaki Disease". You might have heard of it recently (Travolta's kid).
May was in the hosptial for about a month and a half while the doctors tried to figure out why her body wasn't accepting the treatment. (If treated in the first two weeks, the child usually recovers quickly with no complications)
For some reason, May's body didn't accept the medicine. They found that my little sweetheart was only staying stable if they pumped her full of steroids. Without the steroids, she had a fever of 104 and her heart was being attacked by this disease. So they pumped her with tons of steroids. Unfortunately, during the first month or so, she had some heart damage occur. 2 annurisms. (I can't spell...sorry)
So, they kept pumping her with steroids every day and the little sweetheart kept moving forward with life. She had to go to the hospital every week to have blood tests and a echo taken so they could make sure no more damage was being done to her heart. Everything looked good.
Each week, my family and I would get this good news from the doctors that her numbers were getting better, and they would lower her steroids. (After 3 months on the steroids, she had gained 40+ pounds, was covered in a peach fuzz of hair, and was pulling her hair out in her sleep.) This was a traumatic experience for her.
We kept getting great news. May went with my sister to the millenium park celebration for Obama in chicago where he gave that great speech. May went with her Mommy to vote for Obama. May also voted for him in a mock election at her kindergarden.
About a week after the millenium park speech, May was observed throwing up at school. They took her down to the nurse and that is where she admitted that she had been throwing up every day for the past two months, but didn't want to tell anyone because she was afraid she wouldn't be allowed to go to kindergarden. (she loved it there because mommy was the librarian, and she loved school)
She was also afraid that she would have to go back in the hospital and she didn't want that. Well of course, that evening, my brother in law and sister took her back in to the hosp. I got the call while I was in class, and I rushed down to the hospital. The doctors decided they wanted to do a angiogram to check the inside of her heart. We all gathered at the hospital because this seemed like a big procedure.
A few hours later, the doctors came out and grabbed my sis and brother in law and took them back. A couple minutes later, my brother in law came out bawling. He kept saying- its bad... its really really bad. (I am trying to hold back tears right now thinking about this)
May's heart was completely clogged with calcium. IT was so bad that they were afraid to take the camera out in fear of setting something off. The said that she would need a heart transplant- but since she was stable at the time, they would send her info out to all the hospitals across the US to get second opinions. The doctors were going to reconvene the next day to make a plan of attack.
We were left with our hearts broken. Some stayed that night, some went home to get some sleep and then to head back in the am. I and my girlfriend finally went home to get a couple hours sleep. Before I could hit the bed, I got a text from my sister stating my niece had a heart attack and that it was really bad. When I got to the hospital, and I was running down the halls in a panic, I got another text. "She is dying now"
When I got to her room, I had to push past my brother in law who tried to stop me- he didn't want me to see her like that (room filled with doctors pumping on her chest) Both my sisters were laying on the ground- my younger one was bawling- my older (her mommy) was in shock and had a blank look on her face like she had just seen a ghost. She couldn't speak. I will never forget that scene.
May was like my best friend and buddy. She loved to be swung around in circles and tickled till she farted. She always wanted to sit next to me at dinner parties and always held my hand on walks. She went through a phase for like 2 months when she was 4 and pretended she was a cat. She would only meow to you, or purr...and on occasion, pretend to scratch you. She crawled on all fours during her cat phase. lol She was hillarious. She loved her Uncle Tom and I loved her. I got to spend the best 5 years of my life with her- seeing her daily for years. How many uncles do you know that call their sister begging to babysit? That's how much I loved being around her!!!! When I would babysit, we would sometimes watch TUF. I would explain that he had ketchup on his face... but she would laugh and ask me tons of questions about everything.
You couldn't seperate me from may!
When we went on vacation, she would come curl up and take naps with me.
So... to the Obama part!
My sister decided to write Obama on December 22nd to tell him about May. She wanted him to know that MAy was a big fan and how she wouldn't be there to seem him step into office.
Somehow, Obama got the letter. He decided to put his day on hold (which must of been super busy considering it was less than a month ago) and he wrote my sister a hand written letter about my niece, kawasaki disease, his children, and how he mourned his grandmothers death. He hand wrote this letter and signed it. He offered his condolences, and expressed his sorrow for my sister. It was over a page long.
Somehow, whoever addressed the letter back to my sister wrote the wrong address. Her # is 5225 and they wrote 25. Amazingly, it arrived to my sisters hands this past Tuesday. The day Barack became our offical president.
How cool is that? My sister called me crying that day to share the news- and I wanted to share it with you all. I especially wanted to share the story of my niece May, who was the most amazing and brave little girl I have ever met. RIP Mayonaise. 5/16/03-11/14/08