{"id":111209,"date":"2013-12-21T17:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T22:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/?p=111209"},"modified":"2013-12-21T16:47:54","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T21:47:54","slug":"brenda-schmitz-christmas-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/brenda-schmitz-christmas-wish\/","title":{"rendered":"One Mother&#8217;s Christmas Wish From Beyond The Grave"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_111210\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-111210\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brenda-schmitz.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-111210 lazyload\" title=\"brenda schmitz\" alt=\"Facebook\" data-src=\"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brenda-schmitz.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"400\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brenda-schmitz.jpg 620w, https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brenda-schmitz-280x181.jpg 280w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 620px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 620\/400;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-111210\" title=\"brenda schmitz\" alt=\"Facebook\" src=\"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brenda-schmitz.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brenda-schmitz.jpg 620w, https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brenda-schmitz-280x181.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-111210\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I make a lot of jokes about onion cutting ninjas and what-not, but in all honesty I am not an overly teary-eyed person. But this story legitimately had me in crying. Every year Iowa radio station STAR 102.5 takes submissions for Christmas wishes. They get hundreds of submissions but only select a few lucky people. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AG-xGNh3diw#t=21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This year<\/a> one of those people is Des Moines resident\u00a0<strong>David Schmitz<\/strong>, and it&#8217;s not hard to see why.<\/p>\n<p>Three years ago David&#8217;s wife\u00a0<strong>Brenda Schmitz<\/strong> passed away from stage four ovarian cancer. Before she died she asked a close friend to hold on to a letter she had written to the radio station, and not to mail it until her husband had fallen in love again. In 2012 David met a woman named\u00a0<strong>Jane<\/strong>, who he eventually fell in love with and married. So Brenda&#8217;s friend sent the letter, and STAR surprised David with it this week. According to STAR, the letter read:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201dWhen you are in receipt of this letter, I will have already lost my battle to ovarian cancer,\u201d Brenda wrote. \u201dI told [friend&#8217;s name redacted] once my loving husband David had moved on in his life and had met someone to share his life with again, to mail this letter to all of you at the station.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The letter went on to request that David&#8217;s new wife receive a day of pampering:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0\u201dShe deserves it, being a stepmother to all those boys. Make her smile and know her efforts are truly appreciated from me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Brenda also asked for her family to be sent on a &#8220;magical trip,&#8221; and requested that the doctors who treated her at Mercy Medical Hospital be gifted with a full night of food, fun and drinks to thank them for their hard work.\u00a0<strong>Scott Allen<\/strong>, the station manager at STAR was moved by the letter. According to the Des Moines Register, Allen said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201dWe\u2019ve been doing the Christmas Wish program for 20-plus years. We\u2019ve never received a wish like this, ever.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Local sponsors picked up the tab for the family to travel to Disney World, but I think the real gift here (I know, cheesy, but true) is the feeling of closure and blessing that this family must be feeling right now. Especially for the new wife, who undoubtedly had some trials of her own fitting herself and her two kids from a previous marriage into a new family dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the video below, and be prepared to cry like a damn baby.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Brenda Schmitz&#039;s Christmas Wish\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AG-xGNh3diw?start=21&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I make a lot of jokes about onion cutting ninjas and what-not, but in all honesty I am not&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21301,"featured_media":111210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5621,5622],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"Childrearing"}],"post_tag":[{"value":5621,"label":"Christmas wish"},{"value":5622,"label":"death of a parent"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brenda-schmitz.jpg",620,400,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Frances Locke","author_link":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/author\/frances-locke\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"Childrearing","slug":"childrearing","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Get childrearing advice and read blog articles about how to raise your kids. Get advice for moms on how to be a good parent.\r\n","parent":0,"count":5343,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":5343,"category_description":"Get childrearing advice and read blog articles about how to raise your kids. Get advice for moms on how to be a good parent.\r\n","cat_name":"Childrearing","category_nicename":"childrearing","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":5621,"name":"Christmas wish","slug":"christmas-wish","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5702,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5622,"name":"death of a parent","slug":"death-of-a-parent","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5703,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21301"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}