House of Miracles

I have been working at Wal-Mart in Hurricane, Utah for over a year now. I find this job somewhat less than fulfilling. It’s just a temporary measure to help me get through college. But for the last six weeks, I had a reason to go to work. We were doing the annual Children’s Miracle Network drive to raise money for Primary Children’s hospital. At first, it was slightly difficult to ask every customer if they “wanted to donate to Primary Children’s Hospital,” but it quickly became easy. I knew that it was for a good cause. Every dollar that was donated will go to helping care for the children whose families can’t afford their care. So I did my best to make a difference in the world even while I was doing a less-than-ideal job. 

What I didn’t expect was the overwhelming generosity of the people in this community, a community that has been especially hard hit by the current woes of the economy. I only had to ask, and so many people gave. Many gave not once, or twice, but nearly every time they went shopping. In the process of doing my job, I witnessed a miracle. So many that were struggling to make ends meet themselves gave to help those that were in a more difficult situation than themselves. 

I asked everyone, and it was the most unlikely of candidates that would often give the most. One big, strong man in his late thirties said, “How can I fail to give when I spent my first four years there?” Another lady told me that her teenage son (who was right there with her) had almost died as a baby. He was losing weight quickly, and none of the doctors she went to could tell her why. When his body couldn’t hold out any longer, he ended up at Primary Children’s Hospital. There, it was an intern and not one of the doctors that immediately knew what was wrong. It seems that the intern had spent some time in a border state where this disease was very common among the immigrants. He had cow’s milk anemia. His mother told me that all of her children would stop eating when they were teething, so their diet during that time consisted solely of cow’s milk, which caused her son’s red-blood-cell count to fall into the dangerously low levels. 

It was truly a miracle that she ran into the one person that could tell her what was wrong with her son, and that person was at Primary Children’s Hospital, a place where the miraculous is apparently an everyday occurrence. My initial goal was to raise $500 (a full 10% of the store’s goal). By the end, thanks to the generosity of many people, I was able to collect $750. One coworker even beat me by about $50. We only had to ask. “Ask and ye shall receive.” I guess that is especially pertinent when you’re not asking for yourself.