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Thank you for helping us fight for Terri's life! You found out as many of us did that e-mails (and phone calls, faxes, etc.) are really easy once you take the plunge. I can't explain exactly why, but Terri's cause has gotten me to commit to something for the first time in a while. I've been as guilty as others about just sitting on my hands and letting someone else do the work. God has really placed Terri in my heart, and I just feel that each one of our voices help to make hers heard better.

On one of the other threads in the wee hours one morning, the thought popped into my head about the children's story "Horton Hears A Who" by Dr. Seuss. Anyone remember that? Horton is this big but thoughtful elephant who thinks he hears something from this tiny little puffball that's headed for disaster. It turns out that when he listens very closely there are really a whole bunch of little itsy bitsy "whos" screaming for help, "We are here. We are HERE! WE ARE HERE!!" That's how I feel about Terri. She's really in there, whether we have the capability of understanding her or not. She's holding on for dear life, and she needs our help!

So please, all you lurkers out there, help us help Terri. Her life is depending on us right now, and one day any of us could be in her shoes. Who will speak for us if we don't speak for Terri now?

"So please, all you lurkers out there, help us help Terri. Her life is depending on us right now, and one day any of us could be in her shoes. Who will speak for us if we don't speak for Terri now?"

On the way home from work yesterday as I was praying for Terri and for my own daughter, who is now the age Terri was when she had her injury, I was thinking of how this could be MY daughter. I was remembering a call I got at about 4 in the morning just a few years ago, from a hospital telling me that my daughter had been in car accident and that I should come right away (it happened to be a good 2 hours away) They gave me so little information that all sorts of things were running through my mind on the drive up there. When I finally saw her, she looked like someone had beaten her up, but I was relieved to discover her to be alive and conscious and glad to see me. She was scheduled for immediate surgery for a broken neck. Her left wrist had also been severely crushed and they never expected her to have full use of it again. Thank God there had been no spinal cord damage.

While we were in the family waiting room next to the ICU, there was another family there day and night. Their son, near the same age as our daughter, had been in a car wreck also, and was comatose. The parents had been informed that he would never wake up, was not likely to survive and if he did would be a vegetable. It was awful what they were dealing with. Of course, at such times you thank the good Lord that it was not YOUR child, and then you feel guilty for those thoughts.

I am happy to report that my daughter recovered from her injuries much better and more quickly than anyone had anticipated. But every now and then I think of that family who were not so fortunate and wonder how things went with them and how are they coping.

Anyway, maybe it is because of my daughter and that experience that I feel so close to this case, or at least to this extent. I don't know, but I'm sure that all of you who are parents, especially of beautiful daughters, have at least considered that Terri could have been any one of OUR girls, and that makes us want to be there for her so even more.