December 13, 2004

Peggy’s staff was opening the morning mail. It had been heavy. Some of it was encouragement, some was to have her support or oppose legislation, some was for help, some was for special favors and some was hate mail. The encouragement went on one pile, the legislation information on two piles by subject, one pro, one con. The hate mail bothered her. There were actually people who didn’t like her. Brenda opened one letter and laid it aside. It was personal to Peggy. She would hold it for later in the day. About ten she opened a letter that was also personal. She put it with the other one.

Peggy came in from session and asked if there was anything she needed to do. Brenda waved. “If you have five minutes you should see this.”

“Another hate item?”

“Actually far from it. I have two letters from people who want to thank you for something.” She handed them to Peggy.

The first one began.

Congresswoman Peggy Kramer:

I cried the other day when I saw your TV press conference. I rarely watch the news but was looking for a weather forecast and saw at the bottom of the screen that you were going to have a press conference. I was going to be out so I set the TIVO for it and haven’t had time to look at it till today. When I saw the date and time of the one implantation I knew. That was our baby. When the implant failed, I cried for us. When I saw that conference I cried for you. I had never thought of how that would have impacted the woman who tried to help us. I hope you accept my apology for this lack of concern. I hope I learn from this to be more concerned about others.

Allow me to tell you what has happened because I want you to know the good news. Because the first implant failed the doctor suggested I take a port, with it I decided to donate. I did it for over a year, the first month they used the ova for our child, and then two months ago they did it again. We have a boy and a girl from the first month and they are both wonderful. In addition, a woman is now pregnant with two more children for us from my last month donation. I decided to let the port in and am continuing to donate. I seem to only produce two or three viable ova each month so to get as many takes as you did it takes me more months. I will have it out when my doctor suggests it. The failure of your body to retain the implant was a blow to me as it was to you. But both of us took the bad hand we were dealt and played it. I think we got a lot out of those cards and I hope that others did.