December 2001 Updates on
Mary Beth's
Journey
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The month that we have all been afraid to arrive has come. On December 7, 1985, we welcomed a wonderful bundle of joy into our lives named Mary Elizabeth Ricken. Each year thereafter, we celebrated her birthday in grand style just as we celebrate all of our family birthdays. Tonight, Barbie devised a plan for Mary Beth's birthday this Friday. It is Mary Beth's 16th birthday and we are hosting an open house Sweet Sixteenth Birthday Party in honor of Mary Beth. All are welcome to stop by and stay as long as you like. At this late date, we will not send invitations, so we will rely on all of you to spread the word. In lieu of gifts, we ask that you consider a contribution to Mary Beth's Angels Foundation. Hope to see you here. God bless you, Gerry Please keep the Philip Sullivan family in mind this evening when you say your prayers. In speaking with our friend Jeannie Mitchell last night, it appears as though her dad will be entering the Lord's kingdom soon. Our thoughts and prayers are for peace for the Mary Beth's friend Caroline Mitchell and the entire Mitchell/Sullivan family. God bless you, Gerry When you think of December, you envision winter coats, hats and gloves, so being comfortable in short sleeves today was strange. I expect the weather to change by Friday and be cold for Mary Beth's birthday, just the way she liked it. Her love for the cold winter above all seasons is truly unique in our family. We have all grown to appreciate the goodness in the season and plan to enjoy this winter as she would like us to. God bless you, Gerry I was near the top of my 28 foot extension ladder replacing the fuses on Christmas light strands around 10 PM tonight when I started laughing. While not at the extreme level of Chevy Chase' character Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, I have been accused of emulating his behavior. Being a native Kansan, at least I am not compared to Randy Quade's character, Clark's cousin Eddie, also a Kansan. This is one of our favorite movies and is recommended viewing this season. We all (especially Mary Beth) laughed for hours watching this. It is just what the doctor ordered when the hectic holiday schedule starts to get the best of you. God bless you, Gerry I share a poem sent to us by my little sister, Aunt Annie:
I'm Spending
Christmas with Jesus This Year
Author Unknown
I see the countless
Christmas trees around the world below
With tiny lights like
Heaven's stars reflecting on the snow.
The sight is so
spectacular, please wipe away the tear
For I'm spending
Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.
I hear the many
Christmas songs that people hold so dear;
But the sounds of
music can't compare with the Christmas choir up here.
For I have no words
to tell you the joy their voices bring;
For it is beyond
description to hear an angel sing.
I can't tell you of
the splendor of the peace here in this place.
Can you just imagine
Christmas with our Savior face to face?
I'll ask Him to light
your spirit as I tell Him of your love.
So then pray one for
another as you lift your eyes above.
Please let your
hearts be joyful and let your spirit sing.
For I'm spending
Christmas in heaven
and I'm walking with
the King!
God bless you, Gerry ATTENTION ST JOE ANGELS - There is a Wear Purple Dress Down Day tomorrow - Friday, December 7th in honor of Mary Beth's birthday. You are requested to bring a dollar for Angels Helping Angels. The money will be used to purchase blankets for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital. Today is the Feast of St Nicholas and he visited our home last night. William was so excited with this visit because Saint Nick left something in his shoe in addition to the goodies he left in a basket. Will is becoming a wonderful artist and last week he drew a picture of Rudolph on the white board in our breakfast room. In his 5-year old humor fashion, he added the feature of Rudolph going number 1 and number 2 and spelled the words poop and pee under his drawing. This morning he found a Rudolph candy dispenser in his shoe, left by Saint Nick. When you push its back, a Sugar Daddy dispenses out the posterior of Rudolph. As soon as William saw this, he literally fell to the floor in laughter and said, "Saint Nick saw my drawing!!!!!" Just as MB lived it - Life is short, laugh hard! God bless you, Gerry Happy Sweet Sixteenth Mary Beth! God bless you, Gerry We had a wonderful day yesterday. Mass yesterday morning was celebrated by Father Wightman and it was awesome. Father gave his homily with Mary Beth as the focal point and spoke of the importance of having her in all of our lives. Our open house Sweet Sixteenth birthday party was a success. It was great to be surrounded by so many friends as we celebrated Mary Beth's life. God bless you, Gerry Heidi performed today at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis as a member of the Archdiocesan Children's Choir. The event was the blessing of baby Jesus as presided by Archbishop Rigali. As I sat in the pew listening to the wonderful voices from above I had the opportunity to look up and admire the incredible mosaics resident here. The thing that struck me most were the countless angels of every color. I smiled as I noticed the colors most prominent in the ones I viewed were shades of purple. God bless you, Gerry When William visited Santa Claus twice this weekend, we fully expected to be informed by him that he requested a real horse, reindeer and zebra for Christmas. He has been asking for these for a few days and asked that we buy a zoo and farm so he could expand on his initial collection. When he informed us that he asked Santa for a toy barn and a bouncing ball pit, we immediately cancelled our appointment with Dr. Doolittle. Maybe next year. God bless you, Gerry We are currently in the season of Advent in which we are preparing for the arrival of the baby Jesus. After the preparation of his coming we celebrate the season of Christmas and sharing our love for one another with an outpouring of gifts. Our Jewish brothers are currently celebrating the eight days of Hanukkah to commemorate the rededication of the holy Temple of Jerusalem after the Jews' victory over the Syrians. Many give eight gifts to loved ones, one for each night representing the eights days the miraculous burning of the oil. In these seasons of giving, let us remember those who are less fortunate. During the next few weeks, consider visiting a shelter, a center for the aged, or a hospital to show those you do not know that they are loved. Your gift can be something as simple (but vitally important) as a listening ear, a hug or a smile. God bless you, Gerry One year ago tonight, Mary Beth had her MRI which concluded that she was destined to leave us. I can not think of a more appropriate posting than an article which recently appeared in the St. Louis Children's Hospital magazine regarding Mary Beth's legacy. Click here to read. God bless you, Gerry We had a very enjoyable evening at Our Lady of the Pillar this evening as we listened to the student body perform All American Christmas under the direction of music instructor Danise Baker accompanied on piano by our parish music genius Tom Stephan. The theme of Christmas in America caused us to reflect on how fortunate we are in this country to express our religious beliefs and carry out our traditions. It was wonderful to hear traditional Christmas songs, some with a patriotic twist, and to see the story of Christ's birth in Bethlehem re-created by our youth. This Christmas we are certainly proud to be Americans. God bless you, Gerry It has been a week since Mary Beth's birthday and I can not express the feelings of joy and happiness we had in hosting our impromptu birthday party open house. We had long time friends, new friends, Mary Beth's friends, Barbie's friends, Heidi's friends and Will's friends in attendance. It was very cathartic for all present and I believe helped all of us in our healing process. We understand and appreciate the fact that friends of our family miss Mary Beth as well and we want to express our thanks to all who attended or thought of us during her birthday. God bless you, Gerry One of Mary Beth's first roommates after being diagnosed was a young lady named Amanda Sampson, who was nine years old at the time. Amanda fought long and hard against cancer and was called home by God this week at the age of twelve. Sheila had the opportunity to attend her funeral today and caught up with many of the care givers that Amanda and Mary Beth shared. Please pray for Amanda and her family as they all begin a new life. God bless you, Gerry When we decided to journey to Steamboat Springs for Christmas months ago, William began to worry about how Santa would find us. He has stopped worrying now that he has spoken to him on the phone today and had a personal visit from him this evening at our home. He told Santa our agenda so he will know our location throughout the next week and a half. After his personal visit this evening, he asked Will to turn all the lights off in the kitchen and breakfast room and look out the window to see the glow of Rudolph's nose. Following instructions, he looked and spotted it in the dark rainy sky. When the lights were turned back on, much to our surprise, some packages magically appeared on the back porch for Barbie, Heidi and Will. God bless you, Gerry I am happy to report that we have a happy and healthy two-year old in our extended family as of today. Thank you all for your prayers during the past two years for our nephew. Happy Birthday Clayton Ricken and welcome to the terrific twos! God bless you, Gerry Advent is nearly over and Christmas is around the corner. Every year, the Nativity scene appears on the side altar at Our Lady of the Pillar with baby Jesus placed in the crib by Mary and Joseph during the 4:00 PM children's mass on Christmas Eve. As of this evening, the manger is waiting for this event. William assisted in setting up the manger and trees on the altar and was very excited to help. Enjoying his excitement, I found myself realizing that our Lord's birth is just one short week away. God bless you, Gerry While Barbie was home preparing for her final exams, the rest of us spent the evening in Powell Symphony Hall listening to Heidi perform as the Archdiocesan Children's Choir performed at the Bach Society Candlelight Concert. The evening was filled with beautiful voices singing Christmas carols and the audience even participated on two occasions (Thank goodness there were 2,799 other voices to hide mine). The program ended with a joint rendition of All is Well sung by the adult and children's choirs. I think others in the hall had tears steaming down their cheeks as well. If you would like to hear this concert, it will be aired on Sunday, December 23rd at 6:00 PM on Classic 99, KFOU 99.1 FM in St Louis. God bless you, Gerry With exams complete, Christmas programs in the books, and Christmas break upon us, we enjoyed a view of the Rockies this evening. We know Mary Beth is with us this year during Christmas, she just is not present physically. We decided to spend Christmas this year in her favorite place on earth - Steamboat Springs, CO. As we ski and make snow angels, Mary Beth will be laughing and playing with us every step along the way. God bless you, Gerry Several months ago I was informed by the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Organizing Committee that I have been selected to be a torchbearer for the Torch Relay leading up to the Olympics. I was surprised by this selection and am very humbled to participate. I recently learned that I was nominated by our friend Kathy Schumacher in Kansas City to run in memory of Mary Beth. The theme of the torch relay is "Light the fire within". I believe this to a very fitting theme because Mary Beth lit the fire within so many of us with her love, laughter and faith. This is truly an honor and will be a very emotional time for me I am sure but also most rewarding. You are all invited to come watch on Tuesday, January 8th as I accept the flame at 6:25 PM at the intersection of Olive Avenue and Compton and carry it to the corner of Olive and Garrison in downtown St. Louis. God bless you, Gerry William continues his love of animals. He drafted another letter to Santa requesting another live animal but he informed us that he believes Santa will answer this request. This time he has politely asked that Santa give him one of the reindeer. He said he did not think the jolly old elf would satisfy this request because he would be short next Christmas. He smiled and said, "I just want to see what his note to me will say!" God bless you, Gerry Spectacular is a word that we can use to describe today. Although the temperature at the top of the mountain was 8 degrees this afternoon, the sun was shining, the snow was great, and we all had smiles on our faces. As I skied by one of the more challenging mogully blue runs this afternoon, I thought of the first time Barbie and Mary Beth took me on that run. It was late in the afternoon and they were still fresh but I was not. It took me forever and they both gave me relentless trouble about being on my posterior more than my skis. Barbie reminded me today of how funny that moment truly was to her and MB and we both had a good laugh. God bless you, Gerry Mass in this small Rocky Mountain cowtown is always something special and tonight was no exception. We attended the children's mass at 4:00 PM just as we do every Christmas Eve at Our Lady of the Pillar, only tonight we were at Holy Name in Steamboat. Monsignor did a wonderful job relating to all the kids, especially the little ones with his depiction of the true meaning of Christmas. At one point he had the entire church singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus. Our best wishes of peace and love to all on the eve of our Lord's birth. God bless you, Gerry Have a very Blessed Merry Christmas! God bless you, Gerry, Sheila, Barbie, Heidi, William and Our Angel Mary Beth Our last day in Ski Town USA was filled with fun in the sun on the slopes. Barbie and Will decided to take a break this morning and Sheila, Heidi and I got in as much skiing as we could before 11:00 AM. We crammed a lot of snow into this short period of time before departing for Denver to fly out tomorrow. Earlier in the week, Heidi took a private lesson with Barbara Walker and we saw her again today just before leaving. We developed a special bond last December with Barbara when she assisted Mary Beth down the mountain for her final run. We will forever be indebted to her for bringing such joy to MB. God bless you, Gerry I know we do not live in Kansas anymore, but "There's no place like home!" God bless you, Gerry Our Christmas celebration continued this evening with a gathering at the Haffner residence. The highlight of the Kriegshauser family Christmas celebration each year is the present game which includes all of the children. There is always a humorous moment or two during the game as the presents are opened. One of the highlights this year came when Casey Norburg opened one of her gifts and it was a pair of holiday motif panties so large that they would have fit Orlando Pace, one of the largest offensive lineman in the NFL. We were reminded of the year her brother Matt received a size 50 DD bra when opening his presents. Two of the people who enjoyed this game the most were Aunt Joanie and Mary Beth who we know were laughing with us. God bless you, Gerry Our day today was filled with celebrations and smiles as we attended the wedding of our friend Donna Cassady to Chris Lesniak and ended the evening with the Fluer de Lis Charity Ball where we witnessed the presentation of Diana Tychsen, Allison Jones and Adrian Murphy along with 25 other young ladies. Love was the common theme for these events. Father Tobin talked about the love Donna and Chris have for one another. Archbishop Rigali spoke of the love of family as he addressed the young ladies presented and thanked all for the outpouring of love for the benefit of the children of Cardinal Glennon Hospital. God bless you, Gerry We are happy to introduce you to Mary Beth, Barbie, Heidi and William's 20th cousin, Timothy John Sigwing. TJ was born to Jim and Ann Sigwing on Thursday, December 27th weighing in at 7 pounds 1.6 ounces and measuring 18 3/4 inches long. Welcoming him home are his sister Hallie and brothers Joe and Tom. Congratulations to the entire Sigwing family!
God bless you, Gerry May you be blessed in the New Year with peace, hope, health, joy and love! God bless you, Gerry, Sheila, Barbie, Heidi, William and Our Angel Mary Beth
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