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Dear Michael Mathis,
Thank you for all the years of dedication to our daughter Catilina.
When we found out about the Burned Children Recovery Foundation it was a life saver for Catilina. She had been burned by her father, who poured lighter fluid on her when she was just a toddler. Then both parents left her at the hospital. She came to live in our home, and we have tried many times to help her to rehabilitate. She had as many surgeries as she could endure. It was only through your help that she was able to do the last three surgeries. She was so badly disfigured, and it made her so anxious that it was extremely difficult for her to go to the doctors and then to the hospitals for other surgeries and procedures. She has so many different areas in which she was and is traumatized. First there is the severe disfigurement of her face, and she only has the one eye to see out of. She has been through sixteen surgeries, and could have used dozens more, however she was too traumatized, and could not go through with the other procedures. It became to difficult for us as her foster family to put her through any more and she was having to be sedated before she was taken to the hospitals. It means so much to her that you and your staff care about her, and continue to help her in the huge amounts of counseling, and just talking to her and being her friend. She only has her other foster brothers and sisters that live here in our home of fourteen disabled children and young adults. Each has their own disability, and with Catilina, she has a very creative mind and she can draw very well, and we encourage her to draw. With your help and support she is able to draw more often. We appreciate that she has your support with not only counseling, but also with a few art supplies that you and your staff and Rotary friends have provided for her throughout the year. She looks forward to Camp Phoenix each year. It is such a blessing to us for her to have a place that she can go once a year for a week. Not only does it give us a break, it also gives her a pleasant break of pace. She gets to tell other children how it feels for her, and we have heard from some of the other parents what an inspiration she has been for their child to be able to see and talk to someone who has been burned worse than they have, and to see how well Catilina functions. Although she will never be the same person she once was, she believes that there was a reason that she was burned and she has forgiven her father, although she has never seen her parents again. She has accepted who she is and does the best she can. We all appreciate all that you do for her, and all the other children who have had to endure the trauma of burns. You are truly a blessing to many, and we just want to let you know that you are very appreciated by our family. May God Bless You,
Larry & Francis Wiggins
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