MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
If a four year old girl who has leukemia can be happy w/ a ride on a trash truck, just think of the little things we could all do to make someone's life a bit happier. You don't have to do big things to change the world, just little things to change the world for one person or for a few people. I used to think I had to do big things and beat myself up because I wasn't, but I finally realized that isn't true. I don't mean this as some preachy thing, I just thought maybe this was one of those stories worth thinking about.
it reminds me of that Dave Matthews song
"To change the world
start with one step
However small
first step is hardest of all"
For precious cargo, a trip on the trash truck awaits
By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff | August 27, 2005
Before she rides Dumbo at Walt Disney World, 4-year-old Olivia Williams of Peabody will get another wish: a ride on a trash truck on Wednesday.
Olivia, who has a form of leukemia, used to be scared of the big garbage trucks roaring down her street, at least until her mother, Laura, read her ''I Stink!" book about a talking trash truck that quickly became one of her favorites when she was just 18 months old.
Now on trash day, at the sound of the first rumble outside, Olivia shouts, ''Here comes Trashie," her pet name for all garbage trucks.
She waits, either standing by her front window or sitting on the porch, for the truck to stop. She waves to the crew, who always wave back. She tugs her left arm, signaling the driver to blow the horn. ''That's the best part," Olivia says.
Olivia hasn't greeted Trashie too often in the last year, though.
Last September, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a childhood cancer. Weekly chemotherapy treatments at the Jimmy Fund Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute fell on trash day, Tuesday.
So on the way to Boston -- usually accompanied by her parents, Laura and Wesley, and brother, Michael, 9 months -- Olivia would look for trash trucks and recount their good work for her doctors and nurses.
''They pick up trash. They pick up trash. They pick up trash," Olivia reports.
She now is about halfway through treatment, and her chances for a full recovery are good, her mother says. Olivia is scheduled to start prekindergarten next month at the Welch School in Peabody.
Northside Carting of Peabody, which doesn't pick up the family's trash, invited her to ride on one of its trucks after a worker saw a story on television about the Make-A-Wish Foundation's plan to send Olivia's family to Walt Disney World in October.
Olivia said she is happy to go see Mickey and Goofy, but she also wished she could ride on a ''Trashie."
''It's going to be special," her mother says. ''It's the little things that count in life."
it reminds me of that Dave Matthews song
"To change the world
start with one step
However small
first step is hardest of all"
For precious cargo, a trip on the trash truck awaits
By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff | August 27, 2005
Before she rides Dumbo at Walt Disney World, 4-year-old Olivia Williams of Peabody will get another wish: a ride on a trash truck on Wednesday.
Olivia, who has a form of leukemia, used to be scared of the big garbage trucks roaring down her street, at least until her mother, Laura, read her ''I Stink!" book about a talking trash truck that quickly became one of her favorites when she was just 18 months old.
Now on trash day, at the sound of the first rumble outside, Olivia shouts, ''Here comes Trashie," her pet name for all garbage trucks.
She waits, either standing by her front window or sitting on the porch, for the truck to stop. She waves to the crew, who always wave back. She tugs her left arm, signaling the driver to blow the horn. ''That's the best part," Olivia says.
Olivia hasn't greeted Trashie too often in the last year, though.
Last September, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a childhood cancer. Weekly chemotherapy treatments at the Jimmy Fund Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute fell on trash day, Tuesday.
So on the way to Boston -- usually accompanied by her parents, Laura and Wesley, and brother, Michael, 9 months -- Olivia would look for trash trucks and recount their good work for her doctors and nurses.
''They pick up trash. They pick up trash. They pick up trash," Olivia reports.
She now is about halfway through treatment, and her chances for a full recovery are good, her mother says. Olivia is scheduled to start prekindergarten next month at the Welch School in Peabody.
Northside Carting of Peabody, which doesn't pick up the family's trash, invited her to ride on one of its trucks after a worker saw a story on television about the Make-A-Wish Foundation's plan to send Olivia's family to Walt Disney World in October.
Olivia said she is happy to go see Mickey and Goofy, but she also wished she could ride on a ''Trashie."
''It's going to be special," her mother says. ''It's the little things that count in life."
wink
. Glad her wishes are getting granted 
. 
