I should have written this last week right after the Telethon. Sorry.
This is to the nice person who gave me something to give to Jeneece. It was a $100 bill.
I don’t know who you are. You sent it anonymously. I held onto it for almost a month and then on the morning of the Variety fund raiser I waited, and waited and then I was worried that she was not going to come.
I took my turn in front of the cameras, then went back stage to wait. Then took another turn. And waited.
And you know what happened, because I would not be writing this if it didn’t happen. I just wanted you to go through some of the anxiety that I had.
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Suddenly there she was. She was so big, I mean tall. I had always seen her as small. She was so grown up. I had always seen her as a child.
She was 19 years old, for heaven’s sake. She was not expected to live nearly that long.
Variety helped save her life, she said.
Then she started raising money for Variety, all through pennies. She raised a million dollars by asking people to give pennies. That’s still unbelievable, but she did it.
All the while she was doing good there were tumors growing inside her body. They were painful and crippling and just plain miserable. She complained very little, and went on raising money to help other kids.
I told her someone had sent a gift to her.
“Who?” she asked.
“Don’t know,” I said. “Just someone very nice.”
I gave her the money. She looked surprised.
“She wanted you to have it. That’s all,” I said. I assumed it was a she. She’s are often nice.
“Thank you, thank her,” Jeneece said.
I will, I said.
Thank you, whoever you are. That was very nice of you.
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