Lauren Johnson, a 12-year old girl from Virginia, can’t stop sneezing.
It began, Lynn Johnson said, when both Lauren and her 10-year-old sister came down with colds in mid-October. The colds ran their course in two weeks and included the expected sneezing — big, nasal, productive sneezes.
“After she had the cold, she seemed to be feeling better for a day,” Johnson said, so she let Lauren go to a friend’s house for a sleepover. She returned home on Nov. 1 — and life suddenly went into bless you mode.
“She came back from having the sleepover; it became a rhythmic, nonstop, chronic sneezing. That’s when we first really became alarmed,” Johnson said.
The constant sneezing was too disruptive to allow Lauren to go to school, so she started having homework sent home. After a while, teachers started coming over, too, to help. Lynn Johnson had to stop going to her part-time job at Ghirardelli Chocolate, and also had to suspend her work for a local nonprofit animal rescue group near their Chesapeake, Va., home. Even Lauren’s father, a nuclear engineer in the Navy, has had to take time off.
And through it all, Lauren’s tiny fist has kept rising to her nose to block her sneezes from five to 12 times a minute, all day long. Only when Lauren enters deep sleep does it stop.
“Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote to share our principles,” the former Alaska governor says in the call, which was provided to CNN by one Democrat who recorded it. “The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don’t take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too.”
But the recording makes no mention of the Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate…which makes you go “huh”? Why the robocalls if you’re not even going to mention the candidate?
If this story doesn’t break your heart, nothing will. How crazy that a crash that can kill two can leave others in the vehicle unharmed.
Four young girls were orphaned Saturday in a Virginia crash that claimed the lives of their parents, Michael, 47, and Jeanne Merrill, 42. Three of the four Merrill girls, aged 13, 3, and 18 months, were in the car with their parents at the time of the fatal collision. A fourth child, 9, was in the care of a friend’s parents. All three girls suffered minor injuries and were released to the care of relatives. Police don’t believe alcohol and speed were factors in the accident, but indicate that heavy rain may have been a contributing factor. Two other people in different cars were killed in the crash, in which two cars in opposite lanes veered into the lane in which the Merrills were driving.
Although injury to the Merrill girls was minor, Michael and Jeanne Merrill were pronounced dead at the scene. Funeral services are planned for the couple at local St. Bernadette’s parish on Thursday
