My Kathy Blanket, by Will Nowell

The story that I wanted to tell about mommy today is that, today I went into my MRI and I had a neat opportunity. Ever since Mom and I have been married, she has been a little dissapointed that she married someone that doesn't sleep in past 5 or 6 in the morning. Its been a source of lots of dissagreements between mom and I that she is always asking why I have to get up early, and why I won't sleep in with her. But a little while ago, maybe a couple years ago she discovered the secret weapon. She hugs me, puts her arms around me and knows that she can immediatly calm me down. ANd if she hugs me for long enough I fall right back asleep and forget about getting up, so I've always called her "My Little Kathy Blanket". For a long time now, the past few years, when I am restless or in the morning, sometimes I'll just say, " I need my little Kathy Blanket" and she'll hug me, and it will immediatley calm my spirit. So, while I've been in the hospital, several times before I go to sleep mom has given me little hugs before I go to sleep and helps me calm down. Sometimes I can talk her into laying down with me in this little itty bitty hospital bed. When she does that I immediatly calm down and even though my arm is completely squished, I absolutly love having her with me. Alot of times I'll just fall asleep. So today while I was in the MRI machine and because my Halo is so big they didn't have a way of getting me into the MRI machine without squishing me really badly and my arms were on top of my Halo and it was squishing me pretty badly and it was real uncomortable. Then they put you in this little MRI machine, and they tell you that you have to be in there and the top of it is only about an inch from your nose. So my heart was beating really fast and I was breathing really hard and I was really uncomfortable. So I started to imagine that the reason my arm was uncomfortable was because I had Kathy there with me . I started to pretend that I had my little Kathy blanket there with me, and I stopped breathing hard and I calmed down, and I almost fell asleep while I was in hte MRI machine even though it sounds like a jack hammer is going off the whole time. Because I was able to imagine her laying next to me and it calmed me down. So I really love my little Kathy blanket and I want her to know that. (transcribed by EmyLee McIntyre)