Special Letter from Emily Hatteberg

Dear family o’mine,

This is sister Kathe’s eldest Emily writing. I am not a frequent contributor to the blog, so I’ll pause for a moment to let you all get over the shock of seeing my name up here!

Though it’s rather a faux pas, I am writing today to ask a favor of you all.

My best friend Hollie has dealt with many things in her life: the death of both her parents – her mother of cancer when she was still in high school and her father of heart disease in 2006; her sister’s diagnosis of breast cancer just before Hollie’s deployment to Iraq in 2006, a mere month or two after her father’s death; the double mastectomy she underwent three weeks ago at the age of 29 after discovering that she too carried the gene that can cause cancer; and post-traumatic stress issues related to her experiences in Iraq over the last year.

Hollie is without a doubt the bravest and strongest person I have ever met. She has spent a lifetime being there for others, as a Sunday school teacher, police officer, soldier, daughter, sister, and friend. She is always joyful and driven and has continually amazed me and everyone around her with her capacity for love, of both people and life, despite the tragedies she’s known. I have cried for her many times, but yesterday was the first time I’ve known her to cry for herself. A lifetime of tough situations has finally caught up with her emotionally and she is struggling.

Wanting, of course, to do something that could make everything “ok” for her again, I asked her yesterday what I could do to help. The only request she had was that I pray for her – a big request for anyone who knows me well – but Hollie has always been a big proponent of the power of prayer, and has enlisted prayers many times in the service of others. I would like to enlist them now in service of her.

The favor that I ask of you all is to include Hollie in your thoughts and prayers over the coming weeks.

And now that this little missive has gotten quite cheesy and more than slightly resembles Al Gore’s speeches about unfortunate Medicare folks during his bid for president in 2000, I will sign off.

If anyone would like to send Hollie a message of support and encouragement, which I know she would appreciate, her e-mail is preciosachulita@yahoo.com.