30 Days of Thankful: Day 26--One of My Heroes

Dear Ellen,

For November, I challenged myself to write 30 heart-felt "thank you" notes, one for each day. I have honored everyone I love dearly, and today I chose you to thank. It's a little weird to you, I guess, that you are on my list of dearly loved. To me it's as natural as can be because I spend each afternoon watching your show and dancing, laughing or crying as if I am spending an hour with a friend.

Ellen, in 2009 I relied on your show to make me laugh during a dark time of struggling with anxiety and depression that threatened to end me. Your show gave my husband and daughter a way to spend time with me and bonded us as a family even more, making me see all the blessings I have. In 2010, I took to heart your anti-bullying campaign and used your dialog and mantra, "Be kind to one another," as my main focus in parenting our then middle-school-aged child.

This year, I have clung to your humor to pull me through another dark time. My 38-year-old sister Gayla was killed in March when her car was struck from behind by a tractor trailer. My best friend and soul mate since birth was just ripped away from me, and it destroyed me, my family and the friends that Gayla and I shared. Then in August of this year, Gayla's and my best girl friend, Sarah, lost her 31-year-old sister, Becky, to a vehicle vs. pedestrian incident. Sarah, her other sister Annie, and I pulled together to get through another horrible tragedy, sometimes calling ourselves the sister club.

Each day we watch you to laugh and dance as part of surviving our losses. Also, I love that my now high-school-aged daughter loves to watch your show with me during a time in her life that hanging with the mama isn't all that cool. I thank you for being such a positive influence for us all. Sometimes we call each other just to say, "Did you see Ellen today?" Thank you for being our friend, Ellen. Thank you for being a friend we just haven't met yet (we hope to someday!). Thank you for reminding us to laugh and dance. Thank you for reminding us to be kind to one another. Thank you for being the perfect example of positive living. Thank you for touching our lives and our hearts. Thank you for being you.

My sincerest love,
Jaimee Hunter