Hi Friends,  I am going to share with you something that happened just before Christmas.  It will melt your heart, break your heart and then make you feel great all at the same time. A lady who joined our group, joined for a reason.  She checked out all the sites that she could find and when she ran across ours, she joined and then reached out to me.  You see, this lady was looking for something.  She needed help.  Her sister has been fighting an uphill battle with her health.  She had inflammation of the lining of her brain and then had to have surgery.  She is 44 years old and imagine this...they shaved her head, laid it open from side to side and then sewed her up.  Now she has to take meds that cause her face to swell and she looks nothing like her old self.  Imagine what that would do to your life.  He sister has seen her sink lower and lower into depression and somewhat withdraw from living.  She does not believe that looking unlike herself and what she is going through, that no one will want to be friends and share with her.  So her sister wrote to churches and other meetup groups.  She reached out to other organizations to no avail.   When I got her letter, I was sitting in bed sick with the flu just a few days before Christmas and I sat there with huge tears in my eyes.  The letter said that she was trying to help her sister and she felt that she had done all that she could do to lift her sprits.  She seemed frantic to me in her writing, like she was at her wits end on what to do.  I could feel that in her writing.  The thing that made me cry was when I read the line was:  All that I want to do is give my sister something for Christmas that she does not have:  Friends. Oh my god!  What is Friends First all about?  I immediately wrote back and in two days I was sitting at breakfast with "B" and she told me about her sister and we were fast friends by the end of breakfast.  She brought her kids, 2 great kids might I add, to breakfast as well.  I agreed to do all that I could do to help her sister.  "B" invited Frank and I over for Christmas Eve during the day and there we met her sister Jaqui, their mother, "B"'s husband and of course the two kids.  We had such a great visit!  The entire family are from South Africa! They have the coolest accents!  Jaqui is a wonderfully warm and friendly person.  She is sort of shy at first and like many, is a bit shy in a crowd so going out and meeting people in large crowds is not good.  I promised Jaqui that I was going to introduce her to people that are kind and good people and that it would not matter how she looked and that we focus on WHO people are inside and not their looks or pocket book anyway!  Jaqui, myself and "B" have burned up e-mails all through the holidays.  I feel like I have known them for years! I was working on putting together a group of ladies to get together to meet Jaqui and get to know each other. Well...before I could even get this letter out to you all, I got a letter from Jaqui yesterday saying that she was headed back to the hospital with blood clots in her legs.  I got another letter this morning and she was admitted and may be in for who knows how long.  So friends, I ask this of you... Lets all reach out to Jaqui and let her know that she is NOT alone and there are a lot of people out there that do care...sight unseen!   Let's flood her e-mail box over the next few days and let her know that she is in our thoughts and that when she gets out of there, that she is going to meet some of us!  Can you believe that in all the churches and meetups and organizations that she wrote to, I was the only one that returned her letter! I am floored. This was supposed to be! (I beleive in those types of things!) She was supposed to find US. Thanks to each of you for reading all this and being the great people that I know you all to be! Reach out to Jaqui at     [address removed]  Let's lift her day! [address removed] jfer047@gmail.