Thank you for the nice letters about the story. I'm happy that it has touched you in the way that it has. The writing of it has also touched me - many of my angers and sorrows have fallen by the wayside during the writing of it. Christmas is a very powerful thing. I must apologize for the many typos that are in the story. The only time I have to write lately is long after the time that I should be in my wee trundle bed with Mee Maw and The Guys. My fingers and eyes go to bed long before I do. I'll get the story polished up before it's reposted on Christmas Eve. I hope to have the corrections made in a few days so that those of you who have requested permission to reprint it will have a *cleaned up* copy. BTW, I've decided that you should pay for doing so. Do something nice for someone who is not expecting it. Perform a random act of kindness, then the story will be yours to do with as you wish. Many much loves, Paw Paw [Posted in FML issue 1766]