DOLL AND WHITE ROSE

DOLL & WHITEROSE I was
walking around in a supermarket
when i saw a cashier hand this
little boy his money back, the boy
couldn't have been more than 5
or 6 years old. The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have
enough money to buy this doll.''
The little boy turned to the old
woman next to him, ''Granny, are
you sure I don't have enough
money?'' She replied, ''You know that you don't have enough
money to
buy this doll, my dear.'' Then she
asked him to stay there for just 5
minutes while she went to look
around. She left quickly. The little boy was still holding the doll in
his
hand. Finally, I walked toward him
and I asked him who he wished
to give this doll to. 'It's the doll
that my sister loved most and wanted so much for
Christmas.She was sure that Santa
Claus would bring it to her.' I
replied to him that maybe Santa
Claus would bring it to her after
all, and not to worry. But he replied to me sadly. 'No, Santa
Claus can't bring it to her where
she is now. I have to give the doll
to my mommy so that she can
give it to my sister when she goes
there.' His eyes were so sad while saying this, 'My Sister has gone to
be with God. Daddy says that
Mommy is going to see God very
soon too, so I thought that she
could take the doll with her to
give it to my sister.'' My heart nearly stopped. The little boy
looked up at me and said, 'I told
daddy to tell mommy not to go
yet. I need her to wait until I
come
back from the mall.' Then he showed me a very nice photo of
himself. He was laughing. He then
told me 'I want mommy to take
my picture with her so she won't
forget me.' 'I love my mommy
and I wish she didn't have to leave
me,
but daddy says that she has to go
to be with my little sister.' Then
he
looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly. I quickly
reached for my wallet and said to
the boy. 'Suppose we check again,
just in case you do have enough
money for the doll!'' OK' he said, 'I
hope I do have enough.' I added some of my money to his without
him seeing and we started to
count it. There was enough for
the doll and even some spare
money. The little boy said, 'Thank
you God for giving me enough money!' Then he looked at me
and added, 'I asked last night
before I went to sleep for God to
make sure I had enough money
to buy this doll, so that mommy
could give it to my sister. He heard
me!'' 'I also wanted to have
enough money to buy a white
rose for my mommy, but I didn't
dare to ask God for too much. But
He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.'' 'My
mommy loves white roses.' A few
minutes later, the old lady
returned and I left with my
basket. I finished my shopping in
a totally different state of mind from when I started. I couldn't
get
the little boy out of my mind.
Then
I remembered a local newspaper
article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a
truck, who hit a car occupied by a
young woman and a little girl. The
little girl died right away and the
mother was left in a critical state.
The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-
sustaining machine because the
young woman would not be able
to recover from the coma. Was
this the family of the little boy?
Two days after this encounter with the little boy I read in the
newspaper that the young
woman had passed away. I
couldn't stop myself as I bought a
bunch of white roses and I went
to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was
for people to see and make last
wishes before her burial. She was
there, in her coffin, holding a
beautiful white rose in her hand
with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest.
I left the place, teary-eyed,
feeling
that my life had been changed
forever. The love that the little
boy had for his mother and his sister
is still, to this day, hard to
imagine,
and in a fraction of a second, a
drunk driver had taken all this
away from him.