So Their Children Can Survive

As a grandfather of eleven grandchildren, I cannot imagine a worse day than to be told one of them has cancer or some other catastrophic disease. In my opinion that’s the place whale dung sits on in the totem pole of life.. We have a grandchild mysteriously losing her hearing, which pales in comparison to cancer, but even that nearly drives me to tears. 

I acknowledge life is precious to everyone, and that cancer is a bastard, but I would think most adults would willingly take their child’s disease if they only could. I bet the good Lord hears that prayer hourly. Disease may be a fact of life for “thinning the herd”, but children shouldn’t have to be subject to it. 

For that reason, my charity of choice is always the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It costs them $1.7 million daily to operate that facility. Marlo Thomas and her colleagues do such a Herculean job of raising money and hammering the message home of what that wonderful organization is doing. And the fact that families never receive a bill from St. Jude for anything so they can help their child survive is incredible. That last sentence, “so they can help their child survive” is profound.