I don’t know Heather and Mike well in real life. I don’t even know them too well online, however, I know them well enough to have carried Maddie around for 20 minutes one Sunday evening a few weeks ago. She happily clung to me like one of those little toy koala bears with hinged limbs that we used to have in the early 80’s that we’d clamp on our Jordache purses.
It’s days after her death and we’re all still reeling, reaching out with our virtual wallets, tweeting and blogging and IM-ing and calling each other to say “I can’t believe it – how can this happen?” And we hurt for Maddie’s parents and we wonder what heaven is like and we hope she likes it there.
If I was Heather nothing would make me feel better. Nothing. Not even a shout out from Jimmy Fallon. But as humans and sympathetic creatures we feel the need to do something. My meager gesture is to put a button on this blog – see, there it is on the top left sidebar – that takes the reader to a page to donate funds to Maddie’s family. There’s a concurrent donation drive for the March of Dimes which has raised a bajillion dollars in the hours since the news of Maddie’s death hit Twitter.
I chose to use the family donation button here because it feels more personal. If you are so moved, please use it, or if the March of Dimes donation drive feels better, you can visit this site. At the very least, won’t you say a prayer for peace for Heather and Mike?
Kim, this is so sad. I feel terrible for their family. I read your post last night and looked around the web. an AMAZING outpouring from so many people.