I have often written about how I feel blessed to be connected to the people who wear my jewelry and how it seems to find them at the right time. Last week I received an email from a mother, it started out like many of my emails. She purchased one of my rings to give to her daughter as she left for camp.
Several weeks later while leaving on a trip with her church group the bus Maggie Lee was in had a tire blow out and she was thrown from and trapped under the bus as it rolled. She spend 3 weeks in the hospital before passing away on August 2nd.
Maggie Lee Henson
1996-2009
I spent several hours reading the story of her accident and about her hospital stay. I was touched by the outpouring of emotions and how blessed this family is to have faith in God during this unimaginably difficult time.
The following is a story that Maggie Lee's father shared on their
CaringBridge webpage about her ring.
I was recently digging around in the outer flap of my computer bag. Some say it is my manbag, but I carry no such item. As I was hunting for a cord for my computer, I found something I had not seen since early into this nightmare. It is a small zip lock bag, with “Speciman Bag. BIOHAZARD.” and directions with four steps on how to insert something into it. Inside the bag is something very non-biohazardous, but something that must have been inserted with a few tears, a measure of compassion and perhaps a prayer.
Inside the bag is a ring that Maggie Lee was wearing when they found her. It’s a ring that Jinny bought for her when she was coming back recently from a trip to Knoxville, one to serve as an encircling reminder of how much she believes in Maggie Lee. It was given to her to wear while going off to Camp Crestridge for two weeks of camp, where she didn’t yet know anyone and would be 900 miles from home. Jinny knew she wouldn’t know anyone at camp and wanted her to remember how much she believed in her and her dreams even though they would be apart.”
Jinny is the greatest encourager I know. It’s a gift of hers and she is more than willing to pour it out liberally on anyone she sees. If you know Jinny, you know its generous, loud and completely heartfelt. It is the fuel in my tank and it is dispensed constantly in our house to accomplish anything from taking a math test, preaching a sermon or even to pulling a tooth. I had no idea she gave this ring to Maggie Lee, but it doesn’t surprise me at all to learn of it tonight.
As I read the ring, the words stood out to me, especially as I think of how they are so fitting of the way Maggie Lee lives her life. Engraved on the ring are these words:
Dream. Fly. Dance. Sing.
I am looking at her now, asleep in the bed, knowing that it’s not time for her to go. She is too young, too full of dreams, flight, dance and song. As I look at her beautiful, unusually quiet self resting in this bed, my prayer, O Lord, is for her to . . .
Dream.
Fly.
Dance.
Sing.
May it be so, Lord God. May it be so.
--John Henson
In celebration of Maggie Lee Henson's life for all orders placed with the Promotion
Code: MAGGIE we will donate a portion of each sale to the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency now through August 31, 2009. Maggie Lee's family blessed two families by donating Maggie's organs.
To find out more about organ donation.
