The White Rose

 I hurried into the local department store to
 grab some last minute Christmas gifts. I looked at all the people and
 grumbled to myself.
 I would be in there forever and I just had so much to do.
 Christmas was beginning to become such a drag. I kinda wished that I               could just sleep through Christmas.

                                                                                                                           But I hurried the best I could through all the people to the toy department.
 Once again I kind of mumbled to myself at the prices of all these toys.
 And wondered if the grandkids would even play with them. I found
 myself in the doll aisle.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a little boy about 5 holding a lovely doll. He    kept touching her hair and he held her so gently.
 I could not seem to help myself. I just kept looking over at the
 little boy and wondered who the doll was for. I watched him turn to a woman
 and he called his aunt by name and said, "Are you sure
 I don't have enough money?".

 She replied a bit impatiently, "You know that you don't have
 enough money for it." The aunt told the little boy not to go anywhere,
 that she had to go get some other things and would be back in a few
 minutes. And then she left the aisle.

 The boy continued to hold the doll. After a bit I asked the boy who
 the doll was for. He said, "It is the doll my sister wanted so
 badly for Christmas. She just knew that Santa would bring it". I
 told him that maybe Santa was going to bring it.

 He said, "No, Santa can't go where my sister
 is... I have to give the
 doll to my Mamma to take to her". I asked him
 where his sister was. He looked at me with the saddest eyes and said,
 "She has gone to be with Jesus.
 My Daddy says that Mamma is going to have to go
 be with her."

 My heart nearly stopped beating. Then the boy looked at me
 again and said, "I told my Daddy to tell Mamma not to go yet.
 I told him to tell her to wait till I got back from the store."

 Then he asked me if I wanted to see his
 picture. I told him I would
 love to. He pulled out some pictures he'd had
 taken at the front of the store.
 He said, "I want my Mamma to take this with her so she won't ever
 forget me. I love my Mamma so very much and I
 wish she did not have to leave me. But Daddy says she will need to be
 with my sister."

 I saw that the little boy had lowered his head
 and had grown so very quiet.
 While he was not looking I reached into my
 purse and pulled out a handful of bills. I asked the little
 boy, "Shall we count that money one more time?".
 He grew excited and said, "Yes, I just know it
 has to be enough." So I slipped my money in with his and
 we began to count it.

 Of course it was plenty for the doll. He softly said, "Thank you Jesus
 for giving me enough money." Then the boy said, "I
 just asked Jesus to give me
 enough money to buy this doll so Mamma can take
 it with her to give to my sister. And he heard my prayer. I wanted to
 ask him for enough to buy my
 Mamma a white rose, but I didn't ask him, but
 he gave me enough to buy the
 doll and a rose for my Mamma. She loves white roses so very, very
 much."

 In a few minutes the aunt came back and I wheeled my cart
 away. I could not keep from thinking about the little boy as I
 finished my shopping In a totally different spirit than
 when I had started. And I kept
 remembering a story I had seen in the newspaper
 several days earlier about a drunk driver hitting a car and killing a little
 girl and the Mother was in
 serious condition. The family was deciding on whether to remove the
 life support. Now surely this little boy did not
 belong with that story.

 Two days later I read in the paper that the
 family had disconnected thelife
 support and the young woman had died. I could
 not forget the little boy and
 just kept wondering if the two were somehow connected.

 Later that day, I could not help myself and I
 went out and bought some white
 roses and took them to the funeral home where
 the young mother was. And
 there she was holding a lovely white rose, the
 beautiful doll, and the
 picture of the little boy in the store. I left
 there in tears, my life changed forever. The love that little boy had
 for his little sister and his mother was overwhelming.                                            And in a split second a drunk driver had ripped
 the life of that little boy to pieces.

   -anonymous-

 Pass this on to your friends and remind them
 to be
 careful about drinking and driving


 "Friends are angels who lift us to our feet
 when our wings
 have trouble remembering how to fly."