I received a letter today from The Starlight Foundation. They write to me regularly throughout any given year, as we are regular supporters of this marvellous group. I guess you could say, this has been my "charity of choice" for the past several years now, ever since the day I left Ella's side once to go home and shared a lift with some loony young adults who were dressed as space aliens (or something)... they were sooooo cheerful, they even put a smile on my face.
And then of course, I instantly started to cry. My heart felt like it was bursting because I realised, in just a few short years, these would be the sorts of kooky visitors that our Ella would see visiting kids on the cardiac ward at the Children's hospital each time she had to have an operation on her growing heart (she would have required life-long monitoring and replacements of an artificial aorta, surgery that was being scheduled for her the first time when she died from the NEC infection).
It took me many months to feel comfortable and "charitable" enough to donate to The Starlight Foundation, now that our future did not hold such visits in it with Ella. But I have always maintained a silent little promise to myself that by donating to them, I am honouring what she faced and the strength it took her... to actually bow out gracefully early. I know that might sound ghastly or bizarre. But it's where I come from on the matter of her passing.
So. To today's letter. A copy of it is on the Starlight website, but basically, with the recent bushfires in Victoria and the current economic downturn, the Foundation is seriously hitting rock bottom. I've received updates from them for five-ish years and never before has it sounded quite this dire for them.
I guess I'm posting this in the hopes that, if you are prone to making spontaneous donations and would be able to help financially, this information is coming to you at a fortuitous time... for the kids.
