She wasn't really a baby, she was 15 years old when she died. She was the light of my life, the child I always wanted, and she was my Brother's first-born. He was going through the first stages of Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS, Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis), and she would, at the age of 18 months, sit on his lap and feed him his meals, before eating herself. She would jump on his lap and give him big hugs and kisses, always hamming it up when my Brother was feeling down. A disease that should have taken his life in 2 to 3 years was extended to almost 11 years by this little bundle.

Once my Brother succumbed to ALS, my niece was diagnosed with small cell cancer. It was devastating for the family and all who knew this precarious, precious little girl. On her hospital bed, she was making beaded wrist charms to sell to anyone who would buy them, so that she could try to save enough money to help a village in Kenya. Her Mother, Sharon, was on the now canceled television show, NOW (No Opportunity Wasted), where she visited this village to see what Maddie, my niece, had accomplished. A well was built with her money and the help of the Children's' Wish Foundation (who re-soundly named Maddie "the little girl who gave up her wish to help others"), who had offered her anything her little heart had desired - big screen plasma television, trip for the family anywhere in the world, whatever she wanted. She wanted to help others, as that was how she lived her forming years, helping my Brother.

With the well being made, empowering the people of the village, children included, to not have to walk 5 - 10 miles a day to the dirty creek to collect water for the village, she also managed to have a one-room school built for the children, school supplies and a teacher. All this was accomplished by a dying young girl on her hospital bed.

I know this is not about losing a baby, but she will always be that baby, sitting on my Brother's lap, feeding him when he couldn't feed himself. Now, with her passing, their is a village in Kenya, all the more prosperous because of this little girl, with a big hole in their hearts, but not nearly as big as the hole in mine.

Learn more about this author, Marc Phillippe Babineau.
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