be surrounded
by the smiles of friends,
the love of family,
and the happiness
that comes
from meeting each day
with the spirit
of Thanksgiving
in your heart.
Have a Happy Holiday
Love,
Bonnie
Michael
Merritt
& Conner
The card had come earlier in the week. I think it was in response to the Halloween cards - with lots of stickers! - that I sent out this year to Merritt, Conner, and Aubree. Very nice!
Even nicer was being able to meet up with Bonnie this afternoon for lunch and a movie! Hooray! My schedule gets so very hectic this time of year and it had seemed we would not be able to see each other for "our afternoon" until mid-December. This afternoon had opened up and she had given an enthusiastic 'Yes!' to my email. Hooray!
She and I opted for lunch at the new Mexican restaurant, this time sans children. How very nice to dine there without the boys! Not that I don't love them (you know I do!), but it's easier to have a 'grown-up' conversation without them, n'est-ce pas?
Bonnie surprised me and insisted that today was her treat! She said it was an early Christmas gift - sure, I'll take that! How very sweet of her!
We then bopped over to Sea Turtle Cinema - I mean, Cinemark - for the movie, "My All American". She's the only one who will go to sports-themed movies with me, so I especially looked forward to this! I really didn't know much more than it was about football.
What an incredible story! Featuring a young man few had ever heard of, Freddie Steinmark's tale was narrated through the loving eyes of his college coach. Why? Because if you want to find love for that young man, go to the ballfield of the University of Texas Longhorns and look at the scoreboard. That's not a politician's or a rich benefactor's name out there. It's the name of a young man who was headed for greatness on the turf until bone cancer took his left leg.
That's what happened to my friend, Jin Hi, when she was 15 years old.
Steinmark was only twenty years old.
Thanks to his cheerleader spirit at the Cotton Bowl in 1970, and thanks to President Richard Nixon's presence at that game to bear witness to the love of the fans for this young man, The National Cancer Act was passed by Congress in 1971.
That's the same year that Steinmark lost his two-year battle against cancer. He was only 22 years old.
Thirteen years later, in 1984, that same aggressive cancer took the effervescent Jin Hi's left leg. Thanks to major advances in cancer research as a result of that 1971 legislation, she has survived to grace stages here in Savannah and silver screens everywhere for another thirty-one years and counting.
Incredible what you can learn from a sports movie.
Incredible, too, that his son, Freddie Steinmark, Jr., also appeared in this movie. Nice touch!
Now, it's time for me to rush back to Savannah! Tonight, I usher at the Lucas for an opera concert!
Ciao!
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