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I Came Back for Cookies

I Came Back for Cookies

by Buster Moldenhauer



A while back some buddies and I rode up to Chicago to visit a kid who’s in a battle for her life against brain tumors. It was just after Christmas and we simply wanted to bring this little girl a teddy bear and wish her well in her struggles, but she crept into my heart and I just can’t seem to shake her loose.  Even before we met, Melanie baked some cookies for me to take along on the long ride home; a gesture to a stranger that became more valuable to me than gold.

During our short visit with little Melanie, we also had a chance to get to know her parents and sister; Loretta, Steve, and Larissa. Melanie’s disease has touched her family in many ways - both dreadful and wonderful - but there’s more love there among those folks than I’ve seen an any family anywhere and the little angel in the middle of this scene generates it in abundance from everyone whose heart she touches.  We might think Melanie’s family is cursed to have to deal with such a tragedy in its life and in many ways it is, but I’ll bet Loretta and Steve will agree that the blessings this little girl brings them on a daily basis mostly outweigh the hardships. 

Since that first time I visited Melanie we’ve had a steady stream of good news and bad news about her medical condition that alternately pulls at my heartstrings and makes my spirits soar. She’s the kind of kid that meets life head-on and finds a pony under the Christmas tree even if it’s really a donkey that Santa left there; so it’s always encouraging for me to visit with her for a dose of that outrageously positive outlook on life she dispenses.  Besides, Melanie makes me cookies. 

On a more recent visit to Chicago, I was honored to ride at the head of a parade of 1,300 motorcycles as it snaked its way through 40 miles of suburban Illinois countryside. I was the guest of the folks who organized the ride, a charity event in support of children’s brain tumor research; folks I’ve come to know and admire because of their love of the kids and their determination to wage war against this monster that’s trying to hurt Melanie. Moreover, the leisurely paced ride that day amid pleasant scenery had my heart in my throat during every one of those miles because Melanie was right behind me on the back seat of my bike. After the ride, Melanie told the crowd of 2,500 that she liked riding with me on my motorcycle better than riding the horses on her farm at home. You just gotta love a kid like that!

My bike was one of those hundreds leaving the event that day but I had many more miles to travel than most. As the powerful Honda ate up the interstate miles headed south that warm Sunday afternoon, thoughts of Melanie filled my helmet, along with the knowledge that there were cookies in the trunk of the Honda waiting ‘til the next rest stop to be sampled. Loretta told me Melanie had stirred and baked those cookies “for Buster” with neither help nor adult supervision. She’s a remarkable little girl in many ways.

My guess is that Melanie will bake me some cookies each time I come back to visit her. I want to go back for those cookies many times and I want her to be able to teach her daughter to bake cookies one day. I want to defeat this monster that’s chasing Melanie and the other kids.  Will you help me get my wishes?


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P.S. I wrote this message in July 2001 after making a trip from Atlanta to Chicago on my Honda Goldwing to participate in the Chicagoland Ride for Kids.

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