{"id":3656,"date":"2022-04-23T21:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/?p=3656"},"modified":"2022-04-23T16:36:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-23T23:36:55","slug":"charity-sunday-st-judes-childrens-research-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/23\/charity-sunday-st-judes-childrens-research-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity Sunday: St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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How Charity Sunday works: for every comment made on this blog post, I will donate money to the charity named. The same promise is made for every blog site listed in the group–click the Linky Links link at the bottom of this post to see the list of participants and read\/comment on any of them to see a donation go to that blogger’s charity. We’re all different! Thanks for your help and your participation!<\/p>\n\n\n

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This month I\u2019d like to talk about St Jude\u2019s Children\u2019s Research Hospital<\/a> located in Memphis, TN. I have always associated St. Jude\u2019s with pediatric cancer, but after a little research found that they treat other catastrophic diseases in children, too. I also recently learned that donations also cover travel, housing, and food\u2014huge costs for families whose children are far from home to receive the specialized care they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know about part of this personally, in that my parents always had to travel a long distance when I was in the Shrine Hospitals. In addition to the trip, staying for any length of time was all extra, and my folks did not have much money. Getting help with travel, food, and housing is a tremendous thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the good work St. Jude\u2019s does, I appreciate the amount of each dollar donated goes to the hospital and its work\u201482 cents of every dollar. That\u2019s a great percentage of return that has earned it a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t have children, so I can\u2019t begin to imagine what it would be like to have a child in great need. But I have written characters with children, and I hope I\u2019ve imbued some sense of the love between child and parent, especially between single parent Sara Richards and her daughter Paula in Burning Bridges<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her thoughts were interrupted by the ring of the landline. \u201cGood morning. Beauty by Beaufort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With only one word spoken Sara knew something was wrong. \u201cGood morning, sweetheart. Aren\u2019t you at work?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I took a sick day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara\u2019s brow creased with worry. \u201cPaula, what\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her daughter\u2019s voice caught. \u201cMom, I feel so silly but I had to talk to you. I was cleaning up the apartment last night and I found an acceptance letter from Northwestern for Dan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNorthwestern? That\u2019s in\u2026uh, it\u2019s in\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChicago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I thought he was going to attend law school at South Carolina, in Columbia.\u201d Sara took a breath. \u201cChicago is a very long way. Did Dan say he wanted to go?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t tell him I found the letter, but I know he does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, Paula. How do you feel?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paula\u2019s tone tightened as though she held back tears. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go. Mom, he\u2019s had the letter for two or three days I think, and he hasn\u2019t said a word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe he\u2019s thought about it and decided to turn them down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so. He talked about it months ago, about how great the Northwestern program is. I got upset that he was looking into a school that far away, and he hasn\u2019t brought it up since. But I know he hasn\u2019t forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, you\u2019re not certain he\u2019s chosen<\/em> Northwestern. The law school at Carolina is excellent, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know, and so does Dan. But lately he\u2019s been restless. I think he wants a change.\u201d Her voice broke. \u201cI think he wants a change in more than where he attends school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara couldn\u2019t contain a soft gasp. \u201cPaula! Has he said anything, done anything?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, but for the past few weeks he\u2019s been really quiet. Oh, I don\u2019t mean he acts mad or nasty, he just seems\u2026uncomfortable around me. And the fact remains that he didn\u2019t tell me about the acceptance from Northwestern. I only found it because it fell out of a book when I was dusting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to talk to him. Believe me, I know the dangers of not communicating when things don\u2019t seem right.\u201d The bell over the front door rang and Sara stood to see who was entering. She was surprised to see her mother, but a quick glance at her watch showed that the morning was nearly gone. \u201cDo you want to come home this weekend?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, but thanks.\u201d Paula gave a nervous laugh. \u201cI\u2019m half afraid if I leave for any length of time, I\u2019ll come home to find him packed and gone. You know, he hasn\u2019t proposed. He hasn\u2019t even suggested I go with him to Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara lowered her voice. \u201cHoney, I\u2019m so sorry. But Dan loves you. You need to talk to him, let him know how you feel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her mother entered the office and set a bag from Bay Street Deli on the desk. \u201cPaula?\u201d she mouthed. Sara nodded. \u201cLet me say hello to her.\u201d Her mother held her hand out for the receiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPaula, your grandmother is here and wants to say hi. But call me tonight, will you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSure. I feel better just telling someone about what\u2019s going on. I love you, Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hot tears stung the backs of Sara\u2019s eyes, a reaction she experienced whenever Paula reverted to Mama<\/em>. \u201cI love you, too, pumpkin.\u201d She handed the phone to her mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How Charity Sunday works: for every comment made on this blog post, I will donate money to the charity named. The same promise is made for every blog site listed in the group–click the Linky Links link at the bottom of this post to see the list of participants and read\/comment on any of them … Continue reading “Charity Sunday: St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,747,3,1],"tags":[11,1048,964,183,2003,1013,633,331],"class_list":["post-3656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-information","category-charity-sunday","category-general","category-uncategorized","tag-anne-krist","tag-burning-bridges","tag-mature-romance","tag-military","tag-mother-daughter-books","tag-second-chance","tag-southern-books","tag-steamy-romance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9wA33-WY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3662,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions\/3662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}