Dear Friends,
I know that it’s hard to expect someone with Multiple Sclerosis to be very happy and I understand why it might sound a little strange, but I wanted to share my story to show you that, yes, it is possible to be happy while being very sick.

It is just a different type of happiness, I guess, but it is just as strong, just as wonderful and just as special as any other type of happiness.

Just like some of you already know, my birthday was February 12th, this past Monday, and I was a little worried about not knowing how I was going to feel to be able to celebrate such a special day, but God allowed me to feel well enough to go out and have a very nice dinner with Keith.
Everything seemed to have been planned wonderfully by him and all the little details were absolutely perfect.
But it wasn’t done there.
I had one more surprise that was really special and that made me the happiest woman alive.
Keith had one present for me that, I have to admit, might not be understood very well by all of you, but that I will try to explain and try to make you understand the meaning that it has for me.
While I am writing my daily story to my Italian friends, I know that most of you didn’t get more reports since I got to feel a little better, so many of you don’t know my big desire and interest in research and in learning about the special people that many of us, sick people, have a reason to go on and believe in a better future: these special people are the scientists.
Well, to tell you the story that has become very personal and dear to my heart, I have to name a scientist that is working very hard to find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.
His name is Peter Calabresi and he is the director of the Multiple Sclerosis center in the famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
He is the man that holds all my hope for a better future for all the people that are suffering from this disease.

Going back to my birthday, I had told Keith and his family that, from now on, I don’t need to receive any more presents and that I would simply love to know that a donation was made to the American MS Society as a gift to me.
Well, the night of my birthday, Keith did buy me a cd and tickets to a show in New York City, but he also gave me one more gift…a gift that is worth more that anything else in the world to me: he found a way to make a donation to Peter Calabresi, the scientist that I chose to be my real and great hero.
Keith found a way to make a donation directly to him, in a way that he could use it to continue his work and his studies.
I was so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was speechless for the longest time when I saw the certificate of the donation.
I was too happy and too shocked to speak!
Then, I started smiling and smiling, and smiling some more…and then I couldn’t stop doing that!
I just couldn’t stop being happy!