A (HRISTMASY-TYPE STORY:

By Beth Kelleher

Her mm1c was Donna-Rose Black and at i'irst glance you might question why I mention her at all. for she dm:sn't appeur to be one of those remarkable people that stands out in a crnwd. nor would even want to. She stood barely 5' l ." weighed 98 pound., had shoulder-length pin-straight sanely-blonde hair, anc.Jhad a waif-like, mousy appearance. More often than not, it is only her humbling limp that evokes a second look at all.

Donna-Rose led a very sn1all life, and contrary to the shallow opinions of those unwilling to look beyond her lagging left leg to see her sQul, this was a result of bravery. For, though few, outside the small, close-knit core of friends who'd become her fomily after her parents death, had even heard of Donna-Rose Black, those who dared to look beyond the child-like frailty and physical faltering, would see that the true Donna-Rose was so much more thon a compilation of the experiences from which she'd grown. Her parents had abandoned her 10 foster care at age 7. By age 10.she'd been diagnosed with epilepsy and hod experienced occasional tcInporary kidney failwe. Her fo$Ler pnrents split up when she was 11, and a large family adopt• ed her at age 12 with an abusive father who sexually assaulted Donna-Rose and her adopted sister until she moved out of the hnuse al the age ofl 7.

While her story was a mosaic of' cycles - pain and growth, exuberance and depression. health and heartache. gain and loss, strength and infirmity - culmi11uling in a nearly-fatal car crash several years ago. l)on11a found an inner peace she 1.;alls'God.' thal gave her life a purpose that she'd never had before. However. as I mentioned earlier, few know her ~tory. or sec anything more th.rn the limp that result from poM re-constructive surgery following the car crash.

Iler '',mull lik" included part-t11nc sccn:turial work at a cnmnlllntly center. ,oluntecring with a church youth group, weekly c.:01111:-.cling,cssinns with the Ir11stetlpsychologist hcr bo:-.slrnd rccummenckd year~ cnrlicr. whe11she first shared her ~tmy. and the .'i "brothers nnd sisters" "ho ,hared thc11 l.1111ilicswith Dnnn;1 Rn~c and hccamc the family ,he hnd ni:ver had as well as the lrie11d:..~he s,1Jes peratt.!I} rwcdcd 01 wursc none or the penple in her lire, \icv.ec.l he1 l1fc 1t, ll'llll>tcly insign11'icunt. Thul i'uct that she ww, c•,idenci:, In them. ol hrnh (iod's Grace and D,11111<1-Rt1,l',..,ubn,11w1ous1ktermin:nio11 tn livi: Howe, er. ).he had ni:vcr, icwct.l hcr own life ;i, n1lu<1blcin I hat "ay. l)c:..p1tcherng lolt.l that -.he nv. n ,ell' pl.'rceptitln wos "tainted by in~ccurity, a sense of low self-worth und her inability to let go or the past and move on." DonnaRose had always felt that her life was not her own. She seemed to hnve an innate certainty that ut some pointthough she hud no iden when or where or how - she'd be culled on to give it ur,.und to the disparity of those who cured about her. Donna-Rose had an intrinsic acceptance of this.

And that's why when the time came, witnesses say she didn't seem shocked, saddened or in pain at all.

It was late Saturday night, shortly before New Years. Well, technicnlly, it was early Sunday morning, but she smiled as she claimed that it was still "early enough 10 let a mind wonder drift and revel in the magical complacency that this night could lust forever and that 9am church-bells might never ring."

Snowflakes wafted willingly lo the frosty earth, bumping each other on their way down to form a fluffy white blanket over everything. It covered our hair, like twinkling halos, and turned our checks and noses rosy red.

Donna-Rose giggled softly und her two companions joined in. As angelic as they must have seemed lO each other, they must h;ive realized how comical they would appear to an outsider. They twirled omong the dancing flakes in circles under the strcetlights, basking in the innocence of the moment.

When they began to feel the cold. they headed back t1w nrds the r.1111iliarsplitlevel home ut the end of' the Suddon Mnuntain cul de-~ac, li~tcnini; to the voices tlmt drifted out,.,ide as they appr 11;I1.:hed.The s1c.idy ba,c heat that pnunded out inw the street r.111,,:u them to smile k11t1\\ ingly at each 11tilc1. a, (1ne of the w1,111en \\ tth Donna Rt1se. rusht•c.l ,1lwad tn rl.'q;;e,I nc\\ 11111sk ;ind ,I k·~,er volume for their friend and self-deemed DJ. tvlcanwhile, as she got closer, Dunna-Rosc rccogni1.ed the thumping of the orange ball on tlw pavement in her driveway and voices began to separate themselves from the general hum, so Donna-Rose turned lo circle around the back of the house from the edge of the embankment to take a few minutes for herself amidst the small guthcring of friends and momentarily bask in the comfort of familiarity at it's finest having no idea that that moment would decide her fate.

In the split second between, leaving the street, and moving around the back of the house, Donna-Rose heard the voice of a small child coming form over the edge of the embankment. She ran over to see, and observed one of the neighborhood kids caught, teetering from a snag in the rocki'ace.

No one can guess if she knew the danger that she would face, though I'm guessing she did, but it's as if the child she saved was solely worth dying for and, in her own mind, that child was meant lo take her place. For in an instance, Donna-Rose Black sacrificed her "small existence" for a greater good still yet to be fully identified, let alone realized. Though I can't prove it, and J never actually saw her wings, or gleaming gold halo, but there was something about her an inherent awareness and knowledge of eternity, something infinite and light about her that will forever leuve me wondering. She seemed to know all along that she'd meet her Maker in a sn1.:rificc, but why she hnd to go, He's the only one who knows. !'hough, if you were to ask me, I'd ~ay He tool her 'home' nnce .igoin. for lhe company ol' His angelit· Donna-Rose.