Maggie Margaret McDonald

It's with a heavy, heavy heart that I dedicate today's post to Maggie McDonald, one of the brightest lights to shine in our community. Some of you might know Maggie from her mother Sally's wonderful blog titled Maggie World. That's where I came to know her, lighting on her shining face, reading of her raucous sense of humor and her dogged persistence to live life joyfully despite serious disability. I had the pleasure of meeting Maggie in person several years ago when I visited San Francisco, and I can still remember her riotous joke-telling -- Maggie couldn't talk, but she used an augmentive communication device and loved a good joke, told me several the afternoon we sat in her house. I texted Sally on Saturday morning, expecting to get together with them again. I had hoped Sally and Maggie would join us in Golden Gate Park on another beautiful day. I looked forward to hearing some more jokes and to laughing with Sally, too, whose dark sense of humor easily rivals my own. Sally called me, though, and told me that they had lost their girl the night before, unexpectedly. Unexpectedly because while those of us in this extreme parenting world might expect to live beyond our children, it's still shocking, still unexpected when they leave us. My heart goes out to Sally, her dear husband Steve and their beautiful sons, Tim and Eddie. I am blessed to have gotten to know Maggie through her mother's words and then my visit with her, but I'm going to miss her. We all will.