Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Are You Smarter Than A 5 Year Old?

No fitness or health related info today. I simply wanted to share the story below with you. The insight, empathy and grace displayed by this 5 year old child amazes me.


Five Year Old Cancer Patient Leaves Hundreds of Notes for Her Family
by Susan Wagner

When five-year-old Elena Desserich was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer, she set out to help her family deal with her death in a truly remarkable way. The kindergartener started writing -- she created "The Kindergarten Survival Guide" for younger sister Grace -- and drawing.

When Elena's cancer robbed her of the ability to speak, she used drawing and painting to communicate with her family. One of her paintings, titled "I Love You," was hung in the Cincinnati Art Museum, next to a painting by Pablo Picasso, one of Elena's favorite artists.

But she also wrote hundreds of notes for her family and hid them in various places around their home in Wyoming; her parents didn't know about the notes until after Elena died. "We were moving some boxes around one day and in between some of the books a note fell out," recalls mom Brooke Desserich. "Each time I would read one of those notes, it was like a little hug from her."

You can read the rest of the article here.

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