Fixing smiles

Today was a very weepy day.

Here's why: Several things came in the mail addressed to Margret, some advertisements, some asking for donations. I got them (and the ones from the last several weeks, too) all together and called to request each organization take her name off their mailing list.

Happier thoughts:

Margret loved to get stuff in the mail with her name on it, even advertisements. (Car insurance anyone?) She had a little money she could spend any way she wanted. Over and above the little goodies she wanted for herself, she wanted to make a difference in the life of someone else, so she made small donations to charity. She had me write checks for her donations to the Cystic Fibrosis foundation, and more recently she donated to Smile Train.

Margret was born with a cleft palate, but it wasn't a complete cleft, only in the roof of her mouth; a 'submucosal cleft' meaning the place where the hard parts of the roof of her mouth didn't quite meet was covered over by the lining of her mouth. The submucosal cleft made it more difficult for her to eat well at first, but she managed. When we took her to the local cleft palate clinic, the surgeon in charge said she was doing well. She didn't need surgery, he said, because in her case, the scarring from an operation might give her more problems than she had. So Margret knew about cleft lips and cleft palates, and knew the severe ones definitely needed to be fixed.

Here's why Smile Train: Smile Train provides free surgeries to babies and children of less developed countries to repair cleft lips and cleft palates. Even better, the Smile Train surgeons teach local doctors how to do the repairs themselves. Smile Train has a small staff, and makes very efficient use of their donations.

Want to see how efficient for yourself?

Go to the Smile Train website: http://www.smiletrain.org/
and click on financials.