March for Maddie.

A few weeks ago, I read a blog post on Alpha Mummy about Maddie Spohr. Maddie was a seventeen-month old girl from California who died a couple a weeks ago. Her mother writes a blog about her family and their life. Unfortunately, I didn't find this blog until after Maddie died. I spent three evenings after work reading back over the entries, laughing, crying, and some in-betweens. Heather is a fantastic writer, funny and moving and clever. I don't know these people but I feel like I do. Maddie was premature, and underwent a lot of illness and pain in her life. But nearly all of the hundreds of photos on her mother's blog are of Maddie smiling, laughing and pulling faces. That girl was BEAUTIFUL. You can see the life and spirit in her eyes and smile in every photo. I feel so MUCH for Maddie's family right now, it's difficult to explain. I know I have a tendency to be overly sensitive, but I challenge you to watch the video a few posts down on Heather's blog and not cry. It's heartbreaking.

I have thought of Heather, Mike and Maddie every day over the last week or two. And so has the rest of the internet. In certain internet circles, people have turned their blogs purple for Maddie. March for Maddie is a series of sponsored walks in honour of Maddie, and with donations going to theMarch of Dimes Foundation. Thousands of people on Twitter are trying to persuadeHugh Jackman to donate $100,000 to March of Dimes in honour of Maddie (Hugh Jackman decided he would donate $100,000 to one individual's chosen charity, but the individual has to convince him in 140 or fewer characters, which is a very interesting idea from the social networking perspective...but that's for another time).

I know nobody who reads this knows Maddie or her family either but if you are touched like I have been, please post the following words into your twitter update:

RT @RealHughJackman PLEASE donate your $100k to March of Dimes in honor of my baby #Maddie http://tinyurl.com/dnewtk

Hopefully this'll help convince him to choose March of Dimes. Alternatively, if you are able to donate money to Heather and Mike's March for Maddie, please do so.

This post is purple for Maddie.