Dear President Albright,
I wanted to send a letter to the Mormon Church and to your missionaries to express the sincere and eternal thanks of myself, my wife and my family for the kindness shown by your Elders during a family crisis we experienced some 2 years ago. I send this letter to emphasis how the good works done by your missionaries and the Mormon Church can brighten faith and belief to those who may have differing opinions regards the nature of God and religion.
Two years ago my eldest daughter Amber, then 3, started to stumble and fall over. On one such fall she banged her head and we took her to see a doctor to ensure she had not concussed herself. During what was meant to be a routine CT scan we were informed that the protective layer around her brain was suffering from severe demyelination, that is the protective sheath was eroding at an uncontrollable rate and causing her to fall over.
Not being doctors we of course didn’t know what that meant, so we took Amber to see a specialist, somewhat concerned by the results. During a meeting with a leading expert in the field we were told very clearly that the condition could not be treated and would at best result in her dying within 3-5 years, and to make matters even worse she would end up in a vegetative state. Amber was a bright, fun loving and wonderful child. Like any parents hearing the news that nothing could save our daughter we were devastated. Both myself and my wife come from military backgrounds and we are used to finding solutions to problems. Indeed, the nature of the company we own is based on finding solutions to complex and difficult solutions in order to protect people. Hearing that there were no solutions and no matter how much effort, time, resources nor money we could put against this situation would solve it. This was a very hard pill to swallow.
We engaged multiple experts on the matter hoping to hear that the analysis was wrong, only to be told the same thing, that she had a very rare condition against which there was no hope, no treatment and no solution and as such we should make the best use of our remaining time together. We saw other children suffering from the same conditions our child would face in the various clinics and hospitals we visited. It was appalling to watch these poor children and their families suffer through the situation, knowing our happy and lively child would soon be wheelchair bound, unable to move, talk or even think in the weeks leading up to her death. Any parent will know that the sense of helplessness in such a situation is very hard to deal with. During this time we were told that we should have a second scan 6 months later to see the rate of the demyelination, which of course seemed like an eternity to our family.
During this time your missionaries were visiting our neighborhood and my wife struck up a friendship with your elders. They would meet once every week or so and during one meeting your elders offered to come by with a group of LDS members and form a prayer group (my apologies if the term is not correct). While not being of your faith we were open to anything that might help of course and welcomed the offer, not expecting any change to the situation. Around eight members of your Church came to our home and prayed for Amber and gave her a blessing.
We took Amber to have her second CT scan the next week and several days later received an urgent call to meet with our neurologist. To his and our surprise the specialist informed us that the disease had not only stopped, but the brain had repaired itself. They informed us that medically there was no explanation for this, and that the brain could not fix itself in such a manner. We of course wanted to believe that our daughter was healed, but didn’t want to get our hopes up, so we repeated the CT scan and engaged other specialists – they all said the same thing – that this form of healing had never been reported before and that they didn’t know how our daughter was now a fit and healthy child.
My wife is a Catholic and I was an agnostic. If I had not believed in some divine being or force before that day I truly believe now. I believe that your Church and Elders were part of the miraculous healing of our child. I believe that our fun loving 5 year old, who has just been assessed as being a gifted child and eligible for a specialist school may not be here today, and certainly not in her bright, fun and clever state of being if your Elders had not prayed for her wellbeing and blessed her to recover. We cannot thank you and your Church enough for the love and effort they showed to a little girl who needed the hand of God to save her. Our appreciation and thoughts go to the Mormon Church and we hope that your interventions bring hope and light to other families.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Mike and Kristen
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