an act of love
3
Child Gives
Pennies to Chapel
A CHILD'S SINCERITY - Three-year-old Ronda Lynn Bradley presents her gift
of pennies for the hospital interfaith chapel to Director Dr. Stuart Sessoms.
There's an expression about being "as
happy as a kid in a candy store."
And there's another one that says
nothing is really yours until you give it
away.
Both of those thoughts, in their own
way, have taken on special meaning at
the Medical Center because of an, act of
love and generosity of a 3-year-old Chero
kee Indian girl from western North Carol
ina.
The child is Ronda Lynn Bradley, who
first came to Duke more than two and a
half years ago when she was not quite a
year old. She carried a heavy, black
birthmark on her face that covered the
entire upper left portion, and her mother
sought the aid of Duke plastic surgeons.
The doctors were encouraging and
told Mrs. Lucinda Jane Bradley to bring
her daughter back when she could be
bottle-fed and could be admitted to the
hospital for surgery.
The return visit took place just under
two years ago. Ronda was admitted for
surgery, and the first night she was here,
her mother and grandmother were sitting
in the lobby when a hospital security
officer, Alvin Nichols, walked by.
Mr. Nichols recognized the two wom
en as Cherokee Indians because he and
his wife had spent several of their vacat
ions near the Cherokee reservation in the
mountains. He began talking with them
and learned about Ronda.
Mr. Nichols also learned that the
Bradleys were very low on funds and
wouldn't be able to stay in Durham
NICHOLS
during Ronda's hospitalization. He went
horrie and talked it over with his wife,
and the next evening Mrs. Nichols came
to the hospital.
She invited Ronda's mother to come
and stay in their home as long as the
child was in the hospital. The grand
mother returned to Cherokee.
Ronda s operation was successful. The
skin at the birthmark site was removed
and replaced with a skin graft from her
abdomen. She returned again in May of
this year, when surgeons fashioned for
her an eyebrow from a sliver of her scalp.
Again, Mrs. Bradley stayed at the
Nichols home so she could be close to
Ronda.
Mr. and Mrs. Nichols had become
increasingly fond of Ronda and her fam
ily, and over the months Mr. Nichols had
begun saving pennies for the little girl.
He planned to give them to her when she
came to Duke again.
When the Bradleys came back last
month for doctors to evaluate Ronda's
progress, they stayed with the Nichols
family, and the night before she was to
come to the hospital Mr. Nichols gave
Ronda her gift of pennies.
He expected her to want to buy a doll,
or a toy, or a sackful of candy, and he
wasn't prepared for her reaction.
"Instead of wanting to spend the
money," Nichols recalled, "she said she
wanted to give it to the 'church' at the
hospital." The "church" is the new inter
faith chapel soon to be opened near the
main lobby.
That simple declaration of generosity
called for a special ceremony.
In the absence of Chaplain Wesley
Aitken, Dr. Stuart Sessoms, director of
the hospital, happily agreed to accept
Ronda's gift on behalf of the chaplain,
the hospital and the "church."
As a large crowd gathered in the cor
ridor outside the chapel, Ronda, who was
dressed in Cherokee costume, ceremoni
ously poured her small treasure into Dr.
Sessoms' cupped hands.
A child, reflecting a generosity beyond
her years, had declined to buy something
for herself and instead passed her small
gift on to others.