Dear Editor,

This letter is a love letter…to Newberry.

I had a stroke two months ago and the City of Newberry gave me time, talent and treasure in an outpouring like I have never seen.

On day one, Kristi Palmer started up a donation page on GiveSendGo to help alleviate the stress of hospital costs and not being physically able to pay things. Then her idea of a silent auction took off when Tina Graham joined in – and by the way, Tina was updating friends on Facebook during this time, and the third musketeer, Joy Sheppard was feeding the cat, coming to the hospital and helping with the auction – and thanks Jessica Hall for helping with the auction as well! Many thanks to Kris Caldwell for offering Many Moons as the perfect venue! I was a bit unaware those first days and had no idea of what was happening until Tina came to my hospital room and told me how Newberry had come together for me…the page, the auction, all of it. I was completely overwhelmed, completely humbled.

How do I say thank you? I guess just like this:

Thank you to every person who went to that page and donated.

Thank you to everyone who donated items for the silent auction.

Thank you to every person who ran errands for me.

Thank you to everyone who just “dropped by” Kristi’s to donate.

But there is much more. I felt the prayers of the faithful like a warm blanket. I felt the prayers of Newberry in the air. I knew how Newberry prays – as a church, as a family, as a community. So:

Thank you to each person who bowed their head for me, who sent a prayer up for me, who asked someone else to pray for me. I felt it, I knew it, I was humbled by it, I was healed by it.

Newberry is more than a town, more than a group of people who live in a certain place, more than the center of the universe. It is more than a mere community, more than a collection of friendly folk. Newberry is a way of life. It is friendship and working together and babies and old folks and front porches and street fairs and history and caring for each other. Newberry is the place I call home, the place I have always loved, the place that came together for one of their own, the place that heals me every day.

Newberry is love.

Thank you,

Meg Muir