One year, long ago, soon after I got my first real job, and moved into my first apartment, I was feeling a little home sick. So I got what I thought was a great idea. The holidays were coming, I'd write a note to each of my family members in their Christmas cards. I would say I was missing them, and tell them I how felt about them. Some wondered what I was dying from, some just never mentioned it.
My German family was not/is not about sharing feelings. The closest my dad and I ever got was at 11:29 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21, 1980 -- the night the Phillies won the World Series.
Tug McGraw did his thing to Willie Wilson and we looked at each other, smiled, and nodded.
Although I must say, after my Christmas note writing, my dad did find a moment to tell me, "Your mom really appreciated that."
This leads me to Thanksgiving. Where, no matter how aloof your family is, someone at the feast feels the need to say, "Why don't we go around the table and say what we are each thankful for?" As much as I hate that, allow me to tell you, thank you.
Your support and your donations mean so much to, literally,
millions of people living with paralysis. I think it was Matthew Reeve that I heard say it best, when he said, You'll never even know how many people you are helping.
We did send out a Thanksgiving card thank you to
our online community of supporters. We featured the image above. It was done by Nikki Cotter. Every one here loved it the minute we saw it! Nikki was born in Antioch California. She is 21 years old and lives in Post Falls, Idaho now. She graduated from Post Falls High School in 2006 and volunteers for the Daisy Troop Girl Scouts. Her hobbies are: riding horses, music, singing, drawing, dancing, writing, and hanging out with her friends.
Nikki was kind enough to let us use the art work she created at
Specialize Needs Recreation to help convey our feelings to you. We can't thank her enough.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at the Reeve Foundation!
Rob
PS:
Here's a video thank you card some of our celebrity friends put together for us!
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