ME AND DANIELLE

Good morning everyone. It's been a month since I've written on my blog. I suppose I need to explain. I've had a small operation last month and will have an even bigger one next week on the 13th. I've been diagnosed with uterine cancer (do you know how hard that is for me to write that no less say it?), but anyhow there it is. I'm not going to wallow away in my sorrow for that's not who I am. So I will not give "me" any more space here writing about my trials and tribulations. So enough about me. Let me move onto who I really wanted to write about.

I've been meaning to write something about a child in the German Shepherd Dog community that lost her life to the dreaded "cancer" last week. Her name is Danielle DeLarso. Many of you know her mother Linda Rogers DeLarso. Beautiful, courageous Danielle only graced this earth for 17 years. I started writing this the day that I found out she left us, and continued to write a sentence or two here and there. I finally finished it this morning. Although like her life, it's not very long, I hope it touches you all in some small way.

DANIELLE:

I looked for your message on your special web-site that your mother kept for you today. I waited and waited. It never came. Then I remembered that you left us and went back home the other day. I just had written to you the night before. I was left to wonder if you ever got to read it, or maybe your mother read it to you just before you shut your eyes for eternal rest. I'm told that you never did wake again but instead the angels accompanied you on your journey to your Heavenly father's outstretched arms. Oh you needed not to worry that your pretty dark hair was a little tousled from laying in that hospital bed for so long. God accepted you into his arms and loved you just the way you were. You were always beautiful to him and to all those that loved you.

Having only pictures of Danielle's face to look at gave life to the words that her mother would write most days about her. I was struck by her gentle beauty. There was something profoundly different about her that I've not seen in girls her age before. I struggled to identify what it was that made her different in my eyes. And there it was.......it was in her eyes that stared back at me. It was like looking in the windows of an old soul in a young body. It was like looking at a portrait of a Victorian woman that one would expect to have graced the wall of some ancient castle that you would see illustrated in a fine novel. She didn't look like the girls of today. There was a quiet beauty and softness about her face. How was I to know then that an angel was staring back at me from her photographs?

Those that are left behind shedding tears for the lovely Danielle miss the lips that smiled and lit up a room welcoming all those who came to visit her. They miss that sparkle in her eyes that seemed to capture the very essence of who she was. I too shed those tears but tears are for those of us who live on this earth. I'm reminded that tears have no place where her soul resides. Her job is done here. She was born to this earth but was made for Heaven. No amount of needles, pain medications, tubes or chemo were ever strong enough to whittle away her faith. She smiled through her pain knowing that God had a plan for her. She was loaned to us to show us what love is all about, without complaint, without jealousy, without selfishness, without keeping score, but with a gentle resolve knowing love is kind, love is patient and love is eternal.

How could a child that so many never met touch so many lives? She did everything with grace and grace only comes from God. She truly is a child of God who was sent to this earth for a short time........just enough to remind us all to love one another. Thank you Dee for touching so many hearts. You truly are love!

Now quick, quick, don't linger........fly away. Let your soul soar above the clouds. Heaven is anxious for your arrival. We on this earth will be fine although we hunger for your presence we know that we were touched by a child that was loaned to us but belonged to something greater! Some write and say "Rest in Peace Danielle" (or Dee as those who knew her well called her). Rest? Are you kidding me? Not Danielle. She'll be too busy teaching the children in Heaven how to score a goal in her beloved sport known here on earth as soccer. Oh they're going to have to be quick to keep up with her! Enjoy your reward in Heaven sweet girl! Miss you? Sure we do! But angels never die. They just go back home!


From the book: "GUARDIAN ANGELS: TRUE STORIES OF ANSWERED PRAYERS" - This collection of stories about amazing things that happened when people prayed is the most recent addition to Anderson's series of popular books about angels, miracles and other wonders. Some of the accounts in Guardian Angels were previously published in Angels We Have Heard on High, but Anderson has added new ones. The most fascinating�and goose-bump producing�involve incidents in which people in distress receive comfort or aid from figures who later mysteriously disappear or entire buildings that seem to vanish after an angelic encounter. In one story, a woman gets through a difficult night in the hospital nursing her sick baby because her younger sister comes to help her. Later, when she thanks her, the sister is puzzled because she wasn't at the hospital that night. Anderson's stories are related through the eyes of faith, and she has written them to convey a message about prayer and its importance in today's world. She also urges readers to make prayer a more significant part of their lives. Believers in the power of prayer and angelic visitations who delight in reading "evidence" of the supernatural will especially enjoy this book.


My rating: Prayers and angels: (4)