December 11 – Nora would be six years old today. We think she would probably love to go for a walk after dark to see all the fun Christmas lights in our neighborhood. She would have an admirer in Magnus who would try to follow her every move. She would enjoy blowing out her candles and eating Swedish Princess Cake – her favorite. She loved decorating the Christmas tree – she thought everything should be hung on the tree, including the stockings!

Today on Nora’s birthday, we will follow our tradition and put up the Christmas tree. This year Nora’s nanny, Katia, will come by and help us decorate it. We will have a Swedish Princess Cake for her too. We will remember Nora running around on her tippy toes with a huge smile, pointing to the twinkling lights and dancing to holiday music. We will try not to let the dark sadness of missing her overshadow the miraculous day she was born.
We are very close to finalizing the terms of a new project to fund a children’s library and family room at a Bay Area hospital in Nora’s name. The hospital provides medical care to under-served communities around San Jose. The room will be a place where children of all ages can escape the confines of their hospital rooms and feel like regular kids – reading books, relaxing with their families. We have so many happy memories of reading books with Nora in the library at the hospital.

We need to raise $50,000 to build the room and name it for Nora. We will be reaching out to you, our friends and supporters, to help us make it happen. Any contributions from today forward will go directly to funding Nora’s library.

Once we finalize the grant we can announce the name of the local hospital. We look forward to sharing that with you!

We hope you will take a moment to hug your loved ones today and be thankful for all the good things in your lives.