*Melanie Brown* 1987-1996 “Honey Pie”
Venus was shinning brightly in the early morning sky on the day Melanie was born. January 26th 1987, I remember watching it through the Hospital window as it slowly faded away as the Sun rose over the horizon, and as they both crept higher in the sky. I remember holding her in the hospital and thinking to myself what a precious bundle of life she was and how lucky I was. I was lucky even though I had broken my leg just one month before on December 23rd. I had required emergency surgery that night and spent all of Christmas in the hospital, my leg was still in a cast. When Melanie was born we already had four children ranging in age from 6 years down to 18 months. I could not work because of my leg, and we had only public assistance to live on. But I was lucky none-the-less because I had been blessed with this miracle. When Melanie and Mom came home from the hospital for the first time, our youngest son, Jr., was unable to say “Melanie”. But what did come out of his mouth sounded more like “Honey”. Within a few seconds “Honey Pie” had been christened with the moniker that would stick with her the rest of her life. From that moment on, she was Honey Pie.
We learned over the next 9 years, that it was
more than a nickname. It described her as well as defined her, always
thoughtful, sweet, kind and loving. She seemed to share joy and
happiness with all she met. In sharing she thrived. Her world was
filled with love, wonder and awe. She seemed to have a basic
connection with Nature, and loved all things, plant and animal. She
would bring home “flowers” and bugs she had found on the way home
from school. She brought much joy and happiness into our lives and
even the lives of our neighbors. We later found out that she would
bring “flowers” to our neighbors as well. As she grew I entered
The University of Wisconsin in Whitewater hoping to find the silver
lining in my broken leg. I remember being especially proud of Melanie
as I explained Set Theory to her from my studies and having her
repeat it to me. I was sure she was destined for great things.
Growing up, as all children will, she got into her
share of mischief. She would draw on the wall, she played at the
wrong times, she made noise in church and she got into fights with
her siblings. I felt sorry for Junior, her older brother, because he
would always get the blame when the two of them got into trouble. Yet
the two of them were inseparable. One time when she was caught
taking coins from our dresser and confronted about it she replied
that they were “only pennies” and that she was “collecting”
them. We later learned that the location of her collection
was in the candy isle of the neighborhood convenience store. Melanie
loved to dress up and she had ample opportunity to do so when the
local Fhilipino organization would hold their various events. When
she was 4 years old she was the “Little Queen of Hearts” on
Valentines Day. And when she was 9 she was the “Reina de las
Estrellias” or “Queen of the Stars” at the Annual Flores de
Mayo/Mothers Day procession.
For Christmas while she was 8 years old Melanie
received a new mountain bike. The following summer, after her 9th
Birthday, she rode that bike endlessly. She took to it like a fish to
water, as her older sister had often taken Melanie with her on her
bike, and would let her ride in front between her and the handlebars,
just as if Melanie was riding solo. Melanie was taken from us on
August 7th 1996; she was riding her beloved bike when she was struck
by pick up truck. She was taken to the Fort Atkinson Hospital, and
was immediately flown to the University Hospital in Madison on the
Flight for Life Helicopter. The next 12 hours were the longest and
worst of my life. Melanie was pronounced dead the next day, August
8th 1996. Five people were given a second chance in life
that day. We donated her heart, lungs, kidneys and pancreas. Honey
pie was sharing once again. Her bike, now a crumpled mass of
metal, rubber and plastic, now rests in her playhouse in our back
yard. The same yard where she played, explored, laughed and cried.
The yard where she buried her goldfish and hamsters underneath the
old tree house.
The weeks, months and years that have followed
have been hard for us, individually and as a married couple, but one
thing has helped us to cope. On the night that Honey died both my
wife and I saw a penny on the floor of the private waiting room that
we were allowed to use. Neither one of us thought anything of it at
the time, yet we both remembered seeing it. After her death we
started to notice that at many of the places we went to for shopping
or dinning or whatever, we would find pennies. In parking lots when
you get out of the car and at the grocery store checkout. In Banks,
Libraries, and Malls. It seemed that everywhere we went we would see
pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters and once even a twenty-dollar
bill!
After a while we came to the conclusion that it was
Honey Pie who was responsible for us finding these coins. Perhaps a
bit naive, but we figured that she must have been guiding us, she
must have wanted these coins for her collection. We started picking
them up early on and just saved them for a while. But before long a
question arose in our minds, “what should we do with her
collection?”ﾝ
We decided that we would use her collection for the benefit of charities in the Philippines, her mothers’ homeland. And in that spirit we have taken steps to create Honey Pies’ Pennies.
Chi-chi and the kids visited “The Santo Niño Orphanage” for the first time during a 2001 family vacation. What they saw there touched them deeply. It was not long after this that we decided what we were going to do with Honey Pies Pennies. The Santo Niño is a managed by Fr. Butch Maglasa, and at that time was located in Candaguit, in the barrio of Sibonga, the Island of Cebu, in Cebu Province, in The Philippines. It is three hours ride from Cebu city. The orphanage has since moved to a larger facility as the number of children there keeps growing. Many of the children there have been abandoned at birth. Many suffer from physical disabilities. One in particular was buried alive by her mother because of a deformity; she was only rescued because of dogs that alerted other people to her location. We would have been eager to adopt one of these children ourselves, but Fr. Maglasa said, “If we adopt one of them we would have to adopt them all”. So we did! We started sending boxes of nice used clothes and shoes as circumstances permitted. We would like to be able to help provide funding for food and/or medical expenses in the future. For the last six years we have been holding an open house to collect clothing, shoes, school supplies, and stuffed animals for the children, and to help raise the funds needed to ship the boxes to the Philippines.
Included in each of the boxes sent so far, has been a little bit of good old American candy, (just not too much), so that Honey Pie can share her collection with new friends.
Photos From The Philippines
http://facstaff.uww.edu/brownd/phil2004/
brownd@uww.edu