September Newsletter: Camden We Love You!

I will talk from my heart. That’s the best I can do at this moment.  The right sentences,  the right words  do not come easy anyway. I feel hopeful. I feel helpless.  I feel love. I feel sadness. I feel confusion. But above all, I really really really want to do something to help  Camden and his family. I am writing to you all now,  beautiful community of my little school, in the hope that together we can make a difference to the lives of Anneliese, Camden and little Zoli. 

You see, five years ago, when the idea of starting my school was born, I envisioned a place where people could come because they felt good in the school, a place where people matter to each other and a place where people can bloom to their fullest creative potentials. You all came to my little school from different corners of the world  and I think that for many of you, it was more than just art lessons here. For some of you it was a place to make friends, for others it was a place to discover what you wanted in your life and make brave choices, and for some of you ASIB even turned out to be your "Hungarian family". Together, you have created a small vibrant creative arty hub in Budapest.

In spring 2013, at one of their usual Wednesday lessons,  Anneliese and Camden

Sping 2013: 
Camdon and Anneliese at one 
of their Wednesday lessons

anounced: " We have good news. You are all going to become aunties!"  We were  thrilled.  Lori brought baby clothes the following week, and from then on, every Wednesday at lesson breaks, we were curiously touching Annelieses belly, making botanical comments: "Oh, now he is the size of a grape. Oh, now he is the size of an egg-plant. Oh, now he is the size of a small watermelon". Aneliese and Camden were so happy and so much in love. We were happy for them and with them. I thought of them so brave:  they had fallen madly in love and three months later, they decided to make a break in their careers, they packed two big suitcase and came to Hungary to spend a year traveling, dancing, doing arts and  all kinds of things they always wanted to do but never had time for. That is how I met them- they enrolled onto several courses at my school. And the news of  little Zoli arriving eight months later, simply crowned their beautiful story.  

However, this spring an email arrived in my inbox. Camden was ill, Annelies wrote. Camden, the strong, sporty guy who lived on a boat in Hawai, who surfed, who dances salsa fantastically, the guy who had been a sucessful marketing manager and the kind, quiet guy who created amazing drawings in my lessons, had been diagnosed with leukemia. His son, Zoli, our little surfer, was just turning two.  This is where the search for a bone marrow donor started and this is where my words ended.

Camden working on his very first painting, spring 2013

I should be saying something wise here, as I need to finish this newsletter somehow, but my head is empty. The only sentence that comes from deep within me is: "Camden, we love you! Camden, we care. Camden we are with you in this"  I wish I could be there this September when he will receive a bone marrow transplant from his sister. I want to give him a BIG hug, to give  Anneliese a BIG hug, to hold again little Zoli in my arms. The hug would tell them more than any words of mine can. But, I am in Hungary and they are in the States. I write this newsletter instead of that hug. 

Perhaps you might like  to join me and say in your heart: "Camdon, we love you!"  Perhaps, like me, you want to do something. You might like to  pray, meditate, send positive thoughts, walk a labirint, send a postcard, send an email, send a donation to the crowd funding initiative or perhals you might have another idea. Just do what your heart tells you. Because today, every little counts.

Camden we love you!

(A friend of Camden and Anneleise started crowd 

founding. You can find more information at: 

http://www.gofundme.com/helpcamdenbeatcml . 

This crowd funding is not about money- it is about 

hope)