My Dear Friends:

This is a note to you to confirm the events of this past weekend. Many of you on our email newsletter have called or emailed asking about my daughter, Cheri. If you have not already heard please let me offer this note to you and yours.

Saturday at 12:25 AM Cheri Anne Cottrell passed away at University Hospital in London, Ontario. She succumbed to pneumonia. It was a gentle passing for her: the family was there and we each had the chance to tell her how much we loved her and how much she meant to us before she slipped into shallow breathing and then faded into eternal sleep. She is in the hands of God Almighty now. Cheri is free now to ascend to the higher dimensions in the great beyond.

For all of her short life (as many of you may know) Cheri was very delicate and severely handicapped. This tiny person lived well past the 8 or 9 years that doctors had predicted her life span to be. She even survived being in an institution for 4 years in her early life (from age 2 1/2 to 6 1/2). The drugs they imposed upon her to control seizures and convulsions deformed her and stunted her development - physically and intellectually. Well through her 37 years of life, Cheri was a fighter. She endured multiple operations and medical procedures that were both painful and brutal. Yet she survived.

Cheri never spoke a word, but in her way she would let us know how she felt about things. On many occasions she would appear in the dreams of myself, my wife Karen, and our other children (Doug Junior, Louise and Jason) with a message for the family. She never had a social life. She never had a job. She never drove a car - but she loved to go for car rides. Cheri did have her music, her toys, her chair, her bed, her TV shows and a mom that loved her and took care of her throughout the years.

Cheri was a light in my life. God, I miss her so already. It was a privilege having Cheri in our family. With all her troubles and with all her pain, she always had a twinkle in her eye... and a smile for everyone! Cheri is a great soul who, in coming into this world, and our family, made the supreme sacrifice to take on the challenges she did in order to get the rest of us on the path. She was a saint who led us to a greater understanding of life and the meaning of life. In short, it is because of Cheri, that we have come in contact with you (and so many others over the years).

The next time you think you have problems in this life my friend, please think of Cheri who came into this world on a ray of trust and with a mission of showing true love. If you think of Cheri and all she endured, my friend, your problems may just shrink a little and indeed may not seem so great or important after all.

Blessings,

Karen and Douglas James Cottrell