Amid all the joy and celebration of Christmas recently, we were distracted by the struggle of a friend's family whose son has leukemia. This 8-year-old boy, whose chemo treatments are brutal, had dealt cheerfully with the illness and hospitalization for months. But suddenly, during the Christmas season, he experienced setback after setback—pneumonia, surgery, infection, reaction to chemo, intubation—day after day we followed the continuous battle.

Because updates came late at night from his exhausted mom, I sat in my pajamas at the computer and wept as I read about the IVs and open surgical wounds and feeding tubes, and her fear--then I would send whatever message of hope I could. It was all too reminiscent of what we went through with brain injury. But for families with a sick or injured child, the insult of having a child so deathly ill during the Christmas season is enhanced when we constantly see images of other children playing happily with new toys in front of the Christmas tree-healthy, happy in their own homes. Our friend needed extra support during this time because she was very frightened and hoping her little boy would be able to see and experience Christmas. In the scheme of things, that wasn't really important-but Christmas is so child-centered, she desperately hoped he'd be able to open his toys and be happy. Seeing him, sedated and tied to tubes and IV lines, tortured her. We sent her message after message of support.

Reaching out to someone dealing with brain injury or another life-threatening situation is a good idea any time. But a New Year's resolution that we take an extra moment next year to help a brain injury family during the holidays would be an especially meaningful gift. I'm going to do it. Will you?

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