I love my adopted city of New York and am a regular reader of the New York Times.  An article there recently reminded me how sentimental I am about my home city of Cincinnati.

Two year old Brody Allen of Colerain Township, a Cincinnati suburb, was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer that he has likely had since birth and is just now making itself known.  The doctors don’t believe he will survive more than two months. His parents wanted him to have one more Christmas so they put up their tree and decorations and little Brody is delighted.  Then his neighbors, bless them, got into the game and decorated their own homes and brought him Christmas gifts and sweets (though he has a feeding tube little Brody enjoys licking the sugar off sour straws and sipping blue Gatorade).

They are arranging a special Christmas parade on September 23 with Santa on a Fire Truck.  Little Brody doesn’t know it isn’t really Christmas but is enjoying it very much.  Thank you Cincinnati for giving little Brody a terrific, if slightly early, Christmas experience.  While I don’t do Facebook there apparently is a Team Brody page you can visit to learn more.  I’m rooting for Brody and hope he understands how lucky he is to live in the great city of Cincinnati!

Just search for Brody Allen Cincinnati on your search engine.  You will come across many Cincinnati and national stories about this little guy.  This is one time I am not upset about Christmas coming so early.  Merry Christmas, Brody.

As always you can find more at http://www.walterthinnes.com and on Twitter @walterthinnes

NEXT: a magical review