This is truly a heartwarming story. My condolences for their loss and may God bless them in their helpful endeavors.

It’ disgusting that people would be so mean. As for making money off of their dead child (yes they really lost their kid) can you imagine the medical bills they have to pay.

First off, this little girl DID pass away. It just takes a little research to find these things out.

If you don’t believe this little girl died, go to:

http://www.legacy.com/Obituaries.asp?Page=OBITFINDERSSIRESULTS.

Once you’re there, type in her first and last name (Elena Desserich), leave the State field as is, and in the date range field select 2000-2009.

Her name was Elena Rosemary Desserich…and she was 7 when she passed.

Second: Unless you personally know this family or have some inside information/insight, you don’t know for sure if they are telling the truth about the love notes or not…but does it hurt to believe a heartwarming story if for no other reason it might uplift grieving parents facing a similar situation?

It’s amazing to me how some posters dispute this family’s claims, yet blindly believe that everyone who comments on here is who they say they are and knows all the facts.

You all can believe what you want, but I’ve always found it best to believe and have faith as a child does and accept the occasional disappointments. To me it’s a hell of a lot better way of moving through the world than to always be suspicious, accusatory, negative and hateful….which most would agree is a painful and depressing existence.

http://Www.whatistheeye.wordpress.com

I am a very cold person, that’s why I excelled is specific jobs in the military. I live in severe pain every day and I have no issues with embracing death regardless of which end of a scope I’m on.

With that said, I find it amazing how detached from reality many of you are…

Obviously many of you have had a real good life; too easy, free of the pain of loss. You have never watched a loved one fade away, never experienced the compassion and unconditional love of a child, never took the time to conceive the overwhelming impact such loss has on others, never had to deal with the trauma of continual drain (physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, and other wise)

When you grow up, maybe you will grasp how and why such a story is both plausible and probable.

This is NOT a fake story. I am not too shocked that people commented and said this was fake, as 95% of the people who are on the internet have the I.Q. of a boiled cabbage.

“Sorry, but obviously fake!

This means her parents never cleaned up in 255 days? Never found one single note by chance what would have spoiled Elenas hide-and-seek?

Nice and heart-warming story anyway!”

What a jerk! Have you had a child that was dying of a terminal illness? Do you have any idea how much time that takes? To say they never “cleaned up” is not only low, but it shows your inability to fully appreciate the dynamics a family goes through when a loved one is dying. They knew they only had so much time with their daughter. Do you really think that “cleaning up” was high on their priority list?

You owe these people an apology, and if not given, then you show yourself for the insensitive jerk your comments make you out to be.

The one who leaves believing will leave with something beautiful and memorable.

The one who rejects will have just wasted time and will have forgotten all about it by this evening, unless they are still patting themselves on the back for their legendary investigative skills. Like some people I know with similar attitude, these will no doubt drink or drug themselves into numbness this weekend to dull the experience of the cynical, useless, ugly reality they have constructed.

I choose to be the former and leave this site with a few moments spent and feeling of having gotten something of far greater value than the cost of the short time I have spent reading it.

Here is the Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

This and other internet laws are discussed at the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6408927/Internet-rules-and- laws-the-top-10-from-Godwin-to-Poe.html

When I was diagnosed and given a 40% survival with treatment, My biggest fear wasn’t the dying. It was my 5 yr old son and how I so did not want to leave him. I wanted him to know how much I love him. I think it would be a good idea, even if you aren’t leaving this world, to follow the book and do what Elena did, remind those around you that you love them. If something were to happen to you, they would find these little love notes and feel as if you were there with them.

The book also helps fund pediatric brain cancer research, Isn’t that good enough for all you selfish bastards. The book not only entertains, it inspires and the proceeds go to a wonderful cause.

So, crawl back into your hole and keep your misery to yourself. You are just jealous that you did not come up with the idea.

Posted to keep this discussion thread in compliance with Godwin’s law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law)

It was the writer of the article who used the term ’135 days’ instead.

I can’t believe anyone would be stupid enough to jump to the ridiculous conclusion that just because the writer said 135 days, therefore the parents used those exact words, therefore the doctor used those exact words, therefore the story is a lie. Can you see how many silly assumptions were made there?

Being cruel and cynical doesn’t mean you’re smart, it actually just reveals how very lacking in intelligence you are.

INSENSITIVE BASTARDS!!!!!!!!

However, if this is true, my heart goes out to these parents. While, thankfully, I have never been in a situation where i had a rough estimate of how long my daughter was going to live, I have been in a position where for four days, the doctors didn’t know what was wrong with her, or if she was going to make it. Watching my one year old struggle to live during that time broke my heart, and if it were not for the help of complete strangers, I don’t know if I would have been able to get through it. It was hard enough for me, a single parent, to do it for four days, it must have been excruciating for these parents, even knowing that the other parent was experiencing the same thing. In some ways, that would probably make it worse, and lead to even more serious problems between them. I truly respect them, and admire them. Finding notes from a child after you have watched them struggle for so long, and still lose, is one of every parents most bittersweet nightmares. It is wonderful to find a little token of love from someone you care about, doubly so if that is a child, but painful if you find it after they are no longer in your life. It is admirable that they can share that with others, so that they might be able to get a little bit of hope out of these parents pain. I offer them my condolences, and my own hope, that they will be able to endure their loss with the same amount of dignity and grace they have shown thus far.

As to all the skeptics…..

I know I said the whole judgement spiel at first, and i will do my best not to judge now, but it is hard. Regardless of your own personal beliefs on this particular subject, we are human beings, all of us, and we are all required to show at least a modicum of common human decency to every other person on this planet. Cross-analyzing, categorizing, and questioning these peoples’ pain, is not decency. Neither is belittling their housekeeping skills, or the veracity of the story. Some of the points I have read here are very true: no 0one can know when she placed the notes. None of us readers know the exact words of the doctor. None of us, were we 8in their positions, would bother too awfully much about cleaning the CD cases, or behind the book shelves, when our child s terminally ill. (If they do, they have some serious problems that honestly make me question whether their priorities as a parent are truly in the right order.) All of us on this planet have faced some kind of loss in our lives. All of us have had our honesty questioned about something that we were being completely truthful about. Put yourself there again. If it didn’t feel good to you to have a complete stranger question the honesty of your story, don’t do it to someone else. karma is a righteous bitch. It WILL come back to bite you.

peace all, and tell your children you love them everyday.

*note to “guy” or whatever sex you happen to be
you don’t have a heart, go find one and do us all a favor. you have low thinking and no life, you are just a waste of space (like the rest of your type)

2. Hundreds of notes? Absolutely! Let me share my experience. Let’s circle back to the latent period AFTER the six weeks of radiation. For many kids post radiation, you would not know they are sick. Many, like my son, carry on normal lives during this period of “stable disease”. They go to school, play with friends, ride their bikes and scooters, go on Make-a-Wish trips; and YES they do lots and lots of drawing, and arts and crafts. I went to Michael’s Arts and Crafts a lot for models, and those little figurines for my son to paint. Another young boy, did a LOT of legos throughout treatment. We still have some of this artwork and crafts. I’m still finding stuff four months after he passed away.

Emotional maturity is not foreign to six year olds. Again, I encourage you to go to http://www.icouldbeyourchild.com and read the stories and blogs of hundreds of these children and you will once again be truly enlightened. People are truly amazed at the maturity and gift of perspective that such young children develop when faced with terminal illness. Go to a pediatric oncology ward and volunteer for just one day and you will be changed FOREVER! I learned more about love, and perspective on life and the importance of character, fortitude, faith and the gift of life from my six year old son and other children of DIPG than I learned in my previous 37 years of life, 12 years of Catholic School and 19 years as a Marine Corps Officer.

I encourage you to go to any of the websites that rate charities and see what the overhead is compared to the amount that actually goes to research, families, etc. More importantly check out the statistics I posted on last evenings post at 9:58 PM. I don’t care if only 7 cents of every sale, (which I guarantee a whole heck of lot more than that is actually going to charity). It would be 7 cents more than was going toward DIPG only a week ago!!!! And let’s face it, the disparity between adult and pediatric cancer funding is woefully inadequate.

God bless the Desserich family and may God have mercy on you negative souls.

Loving dad of a son who passed away from DIPG in June 2009.

The parents are very loving people. This is a real organization and the money will go to a great cause!

1. The doctors said she had 3 months and 6 weeks to live.
–> strange, that is an awfully specific time frame and very unusual. Also, why 3 months and 6 weeks and not 4 months and 2 weeks? As a former nurse, I find this prognosis very unlikely, a doctor is far more likely to say “less than 6 months.” A doctor would never know how many days a person has.

2. Hundreds of notes were found.
–> really? hundreds? accounts say she was very sick, but it sounds like a full time job to make hundreds of notes and hide them around the house.

3. For 3 months and 6 weeks, the parents did not find one note.
–> did they not clean their house for 3 months and 6 weeks?
4. The parents did not know she was making/hiding notes.
–>You’d think that if she was diagnosed with cancer, the parents or someone would be spending almost every moment with her. Don’t you think someone would see her making and hiding hundreds of notes. ODD
5. Elena was 6 years old.
–> Emotional Maturity. A 6-yr old might have trouble comprehending death, let alone their own death, let alone their parents death after their own death. While one could argue a 10-yr old could comprehend their parents lives after their own death, a 6-year old does not have the emotional maturity to comprehend this, and even if they did, not to the extent that they would think of hiding notes that they would find after. Hiding things to be found later is something parents often do for their children and like the Desserich’s idea.
6. Money.
–> Only some of the book sales go to charity! Unfortunately, the parents stand to profit from this. Although some of the funds will go to cancer research, it has not been disclosed that ALL OF THE FUNDS will go to cancer research. If this was true they would have likely said ALL OF THE FUNDS will go to charity. This is not the case. The Desserichs should disclose the amount they are keeping.

While this story is tragic because an innocent child died, it is DISGUSTING the parents are telling lies to profit from their daughter’s death, even if part of it is for a good cause. SHAME ON THEM!!!

For those ignorant’s that say the parents were wrong for telling the little girl she was dying never had a child that know themselves what’s going on. They have never seen the strong little children at St. Judes hospital where the cancer kids are very bright and know the fate that might await them. kids are people that know their bodies and they are often times much much stronger than the parents and they can handle their upcoming possible death.

I’m sure most people don’t know there are cancers that have a zero percent survival rate…I didn’t until my son was diagnosed, so yes they can give a pretty specific time frame on this disease. Most children will live anywhere from 6-12 months from diagnosis. Some will lose there fight in about three months, and some will live past a year. It just depends on the size of the tumor and how aggressive it is. Elena’s was very aggressive, so 135 would be about what they would estimate her time left as. The doctor tried to tell me the odds when my son was diagnosed, and I refused to let her. I was already numb from hearing “brain tumor” and “cancer” and “not good”. Imagine being told not only does your child have cancer, but there is nothing that can be done to prevent their death, there are only options to prolong their time on earth. This cancer is the worst of the worst.

I really believe that children who die are wise souls. I’ve always felt like my son was wise beyond his years, so it doesn’t suprise me at all that Elena knew what her future held and that she wanted to make sure her parents knew she was okay.

And for all you people saying how did the parents not see her doing this, let me give you a run down of this cancer. Kids are diagnosed because they are symptomatic (read the book and you’ll see just how bad Elena was at diagnosis). Then they go through radiation because that is the ONLY treatment that works on this tumor, and it gives the kids several months where they are able to be their old self and just like any other child. Once the tumor starts to grow again, the symptoms return and it’s downhill until they die. It’s not hard to believe that Elena left these notes for her parents while she was feeling well. Any parent who claims to watch their child’s every move is either lying or only has one child.