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Brenden Foster: 'I had a great time'

By Elisa Jaffe, KOMO News, Seattle, Washington

BOTHELL, Wash. -- The day I met Brenden Foster, I met an old soul in an 11 year old's body. "I should be gone in a week or so," he said calmly. When I asked him what he thought were the best things in life, Brenden said, "Just having one." I didn't understand how this child, who was a year younger than my own son, could be so courageous facing death. "It happens. It's natural," Brenden told me. Three years ago, doctors diagnosed Brenden with leukemia. The boy who once rushed through homework so he could play outside found himself confined to a bed. But there was no confining his spirit. "I had a great time. And until my time comes, I'm going to keep having a great time," he said. Brenden's selfless dying wish was to help the homeless. "They're probably starving, so give'em a chance," he said, "food and water." But Brenden was too ill to feed them on his own. So volunteers from Emerald City Lights Bike Ride passed out some 200 sandwiches to the homeless in Seattle. Then Brenden's last wish took on a life of its own. A TV station in Los Angeles held a food drive. School kids in Ohio collected cans. People in Pensacola, Florida gathered goods. And here in Western Washington, KOMO viewers from all over took part in the Stuff the Truck food drive in Brenden's honor. Hundreds with generous hearts donated six and a half huge truck loads of groceries and more than $60,000 in cash to benefit Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline. Brenden touched hearts all over the world. His wish came true, and he lived to see it. "He had the joy of seeing all of the beautiful response to his last wish," said his grandmother, Patricia McMorrow. "It gives him great peace and he knows that his life has meaning." "He's left a legacy and he's only 11," said his mother, Wendy Foster. "He's done more than most people dream of doing just by making a wish." Days before dying, Brenden surprised us with a sudden burst of energy. He wanted to get off the oxygen, hop out of bed and go buy a video game. Wise beyond his years, but still a kid. "I have been so blessed to have this child. A mother couldn't ask for a better son," Wendy said. The B-Man, as his family called him, had one more wish before going: sprinkle wildflower seeds to save the bees. He had heard bees were in trouble. Someone answered B-Man's wish. A retired pilot asked his pilot and flight attendant friends to sprinkle wild flowers around the world, from Bali to Brazil, on Brenden's behalf. When asked what made him sad, Brenden said, "When someone gives up." Brenden Foster never gave up. Even as he clung to his last hours of life, Brenden kept giving. "Follow your dreams. Don't let anything stop you," he said.

Brenden died in his mother's arms Friday November 21, 2008 he was and is a remarkable example of how God wants us to live our lives. If you have ever asked yourself "What would Jesus do?" All you have to do is think of Brenden and how he lived his life and you will have your answer. Brenden will be missed greatly, but Heaven truly accepted an Angel on Friday and I personally take great comfort in knowing that he is watching over me. God Bless! Jody May, Christianity Connection

My Two Cents

You are in your car driving home. Thoughts wander to the game you want to see or meal you want to eat, when suddenly a sound unlike any you've ever heard fills the air. The sound is high above you. A trumpet? A choir? A choir of trumpets? You don't know, but you want to know.. So you pull over, get out of your car, and look up. As you do, you see you aren't the only curious one. The roadside has become a parking lot. Car doors are open, and people are Staring at the sky. Shoppers are racing out of the grocery store. The Little League baseball game across the street has come to a halt. Players and parents are searching the clouds. And what they see, and what you see, has never before been seen. As if the sky were a curtain, the drapes of the atmosphere part. A brilliant light spills onto the earth. There are no shadows. None. From every hue ever seen and a million more never seen. Riding on the flow is an endless fleet of angels. They pass through the curtains one myriad at a time, until they occupy every square inch of the sky. North. South. East. West. Thousands of silvery wings rise and fall in unison, and over the sound of the trumpets, you can hear the cherubim and seraphim chanting, Holy, holy, holy.. The final flank of angels is followed by twenty-four silver-bearded elders and a multitude of souls who join the angels in worship. Suddenly, the heavens are quiet. All is quiet. The angels t urn, you turn, the entire world turns and there He is.. Jesus. Through waves of light you see the silhouetted figure of Christ the King. He is atop a great stallion, and the stallion is atop a billowing cloud. He opens his mouth, and you are surrounded by his declaration: I am the Alpha and the Omega. The angels bow their heads.. The elders remove their crowns.. And before you is a Figure so consuming that you know, instantly you know: Nothing else matters.. For get stock markets and school reports. Sales meetings and football games. Nothing is newsworthy.. All that mattered, matters no more.. For Christ has come. Please let me know the exact time you read this. It is mystical--honest. This morning when the Lord opened a window to Heaven, he saw me, and he asked: My child, what is your greatest wish for today? I responded: 'Lord please; take care of my family, my friends, the person who is reading this message, their family and their special friends. They deserve it and I love them very much'. The love of God is like the ocean, you can see its beginnings but not its end. This message works on the day you receive it. To some it may sound dumb, but the person who sent this to me was impressed with its timing. Let us see if it is true.

ANGELS EXIST, but sometimes, since they don't all have wings we call them FRIENDS, SUCH AS YOU.

Pass it on to 20 of your true friends. SOMETHING GOOD WILL HAPPEN TO YOU TODAY. SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING TO HEAR. THIS IS NOT A JOKE; SOMEONE WILL CALL YOU BY PHONE OR WILL SPEAK TO YOU ABOUT SOMETHING THAT YOU WERE WAITING TO HEAR. DO NOT BREAK THIS EMAIL. SEND IT TO A MINIMUM OF 4 PEOPLE. Put the Date and Time in the 'Subject' area when you read it.

And that is my Two Cents!

Expect the Best of Your Teen

With increased independence, your teen may make some choices that are unwise. During my daughter’s senior year of high school, I often said, “You’re an amazing young woman. I believe in you, and I believe in God, who is with you. And by the way, you’re really bad at sin, so you should forget a career in it.” That often brought a smile to an otherwise tense moment. When a teen makes a wrong decision, you can allow the natural consequences to take their course or administer the appropriate discipline while encouraging him or her to make wise choices. – Alice Crider

Life Is an Elevator By Sue Cameron

Somewhere I got the idea that the seasons of life were neatly defined, like spring, summer, fall, and winter. But my life refuses to play itself out in four distinct acts. I’m not an actress able to exit the stage wearing an apron then reenter dressed in purple chiffon, having permanently traded one role for another. Instead, I often find myself playing different parts.

As an empty nester, I’ve moved from leading mother to a supporting role in my children’s lives. But they still need me, on occasion, to put on my apron, cross to center stage, and perform as Mommy for them or their little ones.

So here’s a new metaphor. For me, life is not a linear progression of time, seasons, or scenes; it’s much more like an elevator. Each year enables me to rise to a new level of maturity. Reaching floor 51 means I have 50 years of experience below me when unexpected situations push my buttons. I can use my experience to operate effectively at many different levels.

I choose to apply the wisdom I’ve gained along the way, while opening up my heart to any new encounters that meet me at the elevator doors. Going up?

American Heroes

Remembering the "Indianapolis"

Sunday, the 29th of July was a quiet day. The sea was runnin five or six feet waves, just a beautiful day out. Didn't do too much, read a book, did a little tinkerin as usual. Had the 8:00 to 12:00 watch and just got off at midnight. A guy relieved me about a quarter to twelve. I went down through the galley and had a cup of coffee. Then went to my compartment and got a blanket off my bed and went back up on deck. I slept under the overhang on the first turret. My battle station was inside it so in case general quarters sounded, I slept underneath it. Just got laid down good, using my shoes for a pillow as usual and the first torpedo hit. I was up and down between the deck and the overhang of the turret like Yankee Doodle Dandy. And, I wondered, "what in the hell is goin on?"

I got out of my blanket and started to roll out from underneath the turret and the other torpedo hit. Another Yankee Doodle deal, all over the place. I started to walk forward to see what I could see and what I seen was about sixty-foot of the bow chopped off, completely gone. Within a minute and a half, maybe two minutes at the most the bow is startin to do down. It filled up with water that fast. Everything was open below deck and the water just flooded in and we were still under way, just scoopin water. Complete chaos, total and complete chaos all over the whole ship. Screams like you couldn't believe and nobody knew what was goin on. The word got passed down, "ABANDON SHIP"! It was maybe five minutes and we were really down in the water so we proceeded to abandon ship.

Jim Newhall and I went over the side holding hands. I got tangled up in the life line long side the ship. I got untangled and surfaced. I'm all alone so I swam out away from the ship, probably fifty yards, maybe one hundred yards, I don't know. I flipped over on my back and looked back and about two thirds of the ship was in the water, bow first and leanin to the right, the propellers were still turning. In the silhouette of the sinking ship I could see guys jumpin off the fantail like crazy. I went over the side with a life jacket. I pulled it off and gave it to one of the younger officers that was screamin his head off that he didn't have one.

Anyway, there I am layin on my back lookin at that and no life jacket. I don't hear anybody around me any place so I'm just kind of floatin and relaxin when low and behold, a potato crate floats by. Potatoes were packaged in wooded crates then. It was just an empty potato crate, made a good buoyancy to hold on to. Works as good as a life jacket I guess. Then pretty soon I heard some voices. I yelled and who answers me, my buddy Jim Newhall. So I swam over to where he was and there was quite a group of them. It's chaos and everybody talkin and a lot of the guys were wounded, burned and we were trying to do the best we could.

Day 1 The next morning we kind of counted heads the best we could. There was about 150 people in the group. We were scattered around quite a bit. Well this isn't too bad, we thought, we'll be picked up today. They knew we were out here after all we were due in the Philippines this morning at 11:00 so when we don't show they'll know. If they didn't get a message off, but we're sure they got a message off, they'll still know where we are so no sweat, we'll be picked up before the days over.

So the day passed, night came and it was cold. IT WAS COLD. The next mornin the sun come up and warmed things up and then it got unbearably hot so you start praying for the sun to go down so you can cool off again.

Day 2 When the sharks showed up, in fact they showed up the afternoon before but I don't know of anybody being bit. Maybe one on the second day but we just know we'll be picked up today. They've got it all organized by now, they'll be out here pretty soon and get us, we all thought. The day wore on and the sharks were around. Come night time and nobody showed up. We had another night of cold, prayin for the sun to come up. What a long night.

Day 3 The sun finally did rise and it got warmed up again. Some of the guys been drinkin salt water by now, and they were goin bezerk. They'd tell you big stories about the Indianapolis is not sunk, its' just right there under the surface. I was just down there and had a drink of water out of the drinkin fountain and the Geedunk is still open. The geedunk bein the commissary where you buy ice cream, cigarettes, candy, what have you, "it's still open" they'd tell ya. "Come on we'll go get a drink of water", and then 3 or 4 guys would believe this story and go with them.

The day wore on and the sharks were around, hundreds of them. You'd hear guys scream, especially late in the afternoon. Seemed like the sharks were the worst late in the afternoon than they were during the day. Then they fed at night too. Everything would be quiet and then you'd hear somebody scream and you knew a shark had got him.

It didn't ever get any cooler in the daytime. In fact, Newhall asked me, he said, "James, do you think it's' any hotter in hell than it is here?" I said, "I don't know, Jim, but if it is, I ain't goin."

We were hungry, thirsty, no water, no food, no sleep, getting dehydrated, water logged and more of the guys were goin bezerk. There was fights goin on so Jim and I decided to heck with this, we'll get away from this bunch before we get hurt. So he and I kind of drifted off by ourselves. We tied our life jackets together so we'd stay together. Jim was in pretty good shape to begin with, but he was burned like crazy. His hand was burned, he couldn't hold on to anything, couldn't touch anything.

Day 4 Then the next day arrived. By this time I would have give my front seat in heaven and walked the rotten log all the way through hell for just one cool drink of water. My mouth was so dry it was like cotton. How I got up enough nerve to take a mouth full of salt water and rinse my mouth out and spit it out I don't know but I did. Did it a couple of times before the mornin was over. That's probably why I ended up with salt-water ulcers in my throat. When we got picked up my throat was bigger than my head.

Anyway, we're out there in the sun prayin for it to go down again, then low and behold there's a plane. Course there had been planes everyday since day one. They were real high and some of the floaters had mirrors that tried to attract them, but nothing. Anyway, this one showed up and flew by and we thought, "Oh hell, he didn't see us either. He's gone." Then we seen him turn and come back and we knew we had been spotted. What a relief that was.

So he did, he came back and flew over us. It was a little PV1 Ventura. It was out on submarine patrol and he spotted us. He radioed back to his base and instead of sending some help out, the Navy sent one plane out. One PBY that came out and circled and radioed back to the base that there was a bunch of people in the water and he needed more assistance and more survival gear. The pilot ended up landin in the water and picked up a lot of guys, the single guys, one or two guys that were together so the afternoon went on. Late in the afternoon before dark there was another PBY on the scene. He dropped his survival gear and he dropped a little three-man rubber raft. Jim and I tried to swim to it. He made it but I didn't. I was just so wore out from holding him up and hangin on to him all day and the night before, I just couldn't make it but he did. About the time he got on it there was two other guys so there is three of them total in it and that's all it was made for, three.

Anyway, the other direction there was two guys in the water and the two guys in the raft told Jim, "we'll go over there and pick those two up". Jim said, "No, we're goin go pick Woody up then we'll go get those two guys." They said "Nope, we're goin to do it the other way." The raft contained those little aluminum oars that come in two pieces and Jim put one of them together and threw the other one over board. "Okay you guys, I don't want to be mean but we're goin over to get Woody and you guys are goin to do the paddling by hand. If you don't things, are goin to happen with this oar that you ain't agoin to like." So they came over and picked me up and that's how I owe Jim Newhall my life. If it had not been for that I wouldn't be here tellin this story.

So they picked me up, then we went and got the other two guys. Now there's six of us on this raft. It's getting pretty crowded but we run onto three other guys and we picked them up. Now there's nine of us on this little raft. It's just about dark and figure we'll make it through the night one way or another. About midnight, a little bit before there was a light shining off of the bottom of the cloud and we knew then we were saved. That was the spotlight of the Cecil Doyle. The Navy is on the scene. There's a ship comin. You can't believe how happy we were, guys screamin and yellin, "We're saved, We're saved."

Morning of the 5th Day The Doyle arrived on the scene and started pickin survivors out of the water a little after midnight. It was daylight the next morning that he came along side us in our little raft. Boy, what a happy day that was to get my feet on the deck again.

We got on deck and saluted the officer of the day and asked permission to come aboard, which was Navy tradition. All I had on was my boatson pipe hanging around my neck on a lanyard and I pulled it off and gave it to one of these guys. Why? I don't know, just happy to give anything I owned for bein rescued, I guess. Anyway, they gave me one spoonful of sweetened water and assigned a guy to me to get me cleaned up because we were all covered with oil. Had been oily for a day, which was a blessing. Had we not had the oil on us like we did, the sun would have really ruined us. It was a good thing we had the oil on.

So I went to the shower and got cleaned up as best as I could. I asked the guy, "Is this fresh water shower or salt water?" He said, "Fresh water." I turned my head up to it and opened my mouth and I tried to drink that shower dry. Got off what we could, junk off of me and they gave us clothes, dungarees of course, and found us a bed. All the crew was just the nicest people in the world. They gave up their beds and everything. I went to sleep laying on my back. Unbeknownst to me I noticed when I was showering that my legs were burned. Both legs were burned in the back, halfway between the thigh and the knee to halfway between the knee and the ankle. I went to sleep and didn't see the doctor. They had one doctor aboard and a couple of quartermen but they had more important things to do than take care of me. There was a lot of people in worst shape than I was but they tried to help. I went to sleep, I don't know how long I slept. I went to sleep with my knees drawed up in the bed on my back. I waked up and all that burn had matted together and I couldn't straighten my legs so I spent the rest of my time until I got aboard the hospital ship on a stretcher. They wanted to move me around so they put me on a stretcher.

They finally discharged us all from the hospital. They kept us all in the hospital, the whole crew until everybody was able to move out. Then they moved us down to what they call the submarine R & R camp. We thought we'd died and gone to heaven. This is not the Navy. You go to bed when you want and get up when you want. You go over to the kitchen and tell the cook what you want to eat and how you want it fixed, like downtown a café.

Well I was discharged on the 3rd day of December 45 and that was the end of my Navy career. I'm glad. I don't want to do it again but if I had to I would even at my age I would gladly serve my country again.

My granddaddy had a lot of sayings he'd always tell me...

Son, do right by your fellow man. Treat him as you'd like to be treated because your chickens will come home to roost. You reap what you sow. Sow good things and you reap good things.

I must have sowed some good seeds somewhere along the line. I've sure been harvesting good things. Found and married the woman I love with a ready-made family. Lot of people don't get to chose their kids but I did. It's been a joy in my life. I dearly love each one of them. Today, fifty years later, there is 32 grandkids and 46 great grandkids. Now that is a bunch of little rascals. We had a lot of good years together, had a lot of good times. Some of it wasn't so good. Sometimes we struggled, sometimes it was better but we've always been together. Do I know how to plant seed or do I know how to plant seed?

I live in a house beside the road and I hope I've been a friend to man.

Survivor Woody James left this life on Monday Sept 19, 2005 just shy of his 83rd birthday. He died late in the afternoon in a tragic car accident in Salt Lake City, Utah. Woody was my grandfather, and although this site was built for the entire crew of the Indy, both survivors and the fallen, it was done especially out of love for Woody. He was one great giant of a man, in stature and in action. My grandfather didn't waste a day in his life, and what a life it was. The words that Woody inscribed in a book of mine gives me comfort and seems a fitting goodbye:

"May you have a long and happy life, as I have had. - Love You, Grandpa"

I miss you Grandpa

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