by Carmella Cyr

Created on: September 26, 2008

Golden yellow, orange and red leaves began to fall. The Maple
trees were beginning to look bare. The children from
the little town of McGraw played and jumped into piles of leaves
all afternoon. Their cheeks were rose red from the cool crisp air.
Giggles and loud laughs could be heard all around the tiny neighborhood.
Moms and Dads stood on their porches talking and admiring thier

children as they played.
Blue, red, purple and striped crocheted hats lay near the base of the Maple trees.
Scarves and mittens were tossed outside of the piles of leaves.
Chickadees were flying and chirping around and above the childrens heads.
It as though they wanted to jump into the leaves too! It was the day
before Thanksgiving and the aroma of turkey and pie was heavy in the air.
It was the kind of day a child remembers for the rest of their life.

Suddenly the laughing, jumping and playing stopped. All of the children
were looking at something across the street. An ambulance pulled up
into Mrs. Cratcheds' drive-way. Two men went in with a bed on wheels
and left within minutes with someone on the bed. It was Mrs. Cratched.
She was ill and needed to go to the hospital. She was the friendliest
neighbor on the block. After the ambulance left all the children stopped
playing and went home.

It is Thanksgiving Eve and Mrs. Cratched is sick. Mom went to the hospital
to find out what happened. Dad and I stayed home and made popcorn. Mom
advised me to make Mrs. Cratched a get well card. That is exactly what
I did. I drew a turkey with the prettiest, most colorful feathers and
next to the turkey I made pictures of pies, cookies and cakes. I made
them because Mrs. Cratched would make pies, and cookies
and cake and pass them out to everyone on Thanksgiving and other holidays.
She had no family but was everyone's grandma.
Now she is sick and won't be with us to celebrate the holidays.

A few hours passed by and Mom came back home. She said Mrs. Cratched will
need to stay in the hospital for a week or so. She has pneumonia and needs
to get well enough to take care of herself before she goes home.

I showed Mom the card. Tears came to her eyes. She gave me a big hug and said
she is so thankful that I am her child and that she loves me. She said
she loves the way I care about other people.

The next day was Thanksgiving. We started our day out by visiting Mrs. Cratched
in the hospital. This time we were the ones bringing her pie, cookies and cake.
Mom brought her some turkey too. She loved it and told us just by being there
with her today she already felt better. She had a tear in her eye when she said
it.

Before we left the hospital I looked at Mrs. Cratched and told her I can't wait for her to get better. Just then we heard somthing outside the hospital window. It was the wind. It began to blow the leaves; yellow, orange and red leaves began to swirl outside the window.
The sun brilliantly broke through the clouds at the same time and shone in on us.
It felt warm instantly. Just then 5 chickadees came to the window sill chirpping, peeping
and singing. They danced in flight outside the window. Mrs. Cratched's was delighted.
She missed seeing her chickadees as she fed the birds everyday. They continued
to fly, chirp and look into the hospital room at Mrs. Cratched until tears of joy
came to her face. With this Mrs. Cratched looked at Mom and I and said, 'Now, this
moment my children, is something special to be thankful for.' With a tear in her
eye and a smile of an angel she put her arms out to give us both a hug and whispered
Happy Thanksgiving.

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