Hampden fulfills teenager’s last wish

HAMPDEN – Days after her 17-year-old daughter’s tragic death, Carol Abraham spotted a Post-it note on the refrigerator door.

Written in her daughter’s own hand, the note contained the name and address of a child from Ontario who has battled leukemia for more than three years.

Susan Abraham had posted the note a few days before her May 2 death in a traffic accident.

It was a reminder for her mother to send a card to Shane Bernier, whose dream is to break the world record for most birthday cards ever received.

“The family was very busy, and she kept asking me if I had sent a card to him,” Carol Abraham said in an interview last week. “I remember she said, ‘Mom, my card is all set. Where is yours?'”

Susan Abraham mailed her card just in time.

She was fatally injured when the gold Saturn she was driving was struck by a tractor-trailer truck as she attempted to turn left from the Canaan Road onto Route 9 in Hampden.

“The accident happened and it was like a dream,” her mother said. “I don’t even know what day it was after the accident, but some of her dear friends had spent the night, and before they left for school that day I took the address and made a copy of [the note]. Her friends took the photocopy to the school with a message asking everyone to send a birthday card to Shane, and I signed it ‘All our love, The Abrahams.'”

Susan Abraham was a junior at Hampden Academy. She participated in various humanitarian missions and always had a project to keep the family busy, said Stanley Abraham III, her brother.

At Susan’s funeral, the Abrahams asked family and friends to help fulfill one of her final tasks. Mourners were asked to send in lieu of flowers a birthday card to Shane Bernier to help him reach his world-record goal.

“If you could have known her, [her death] is a loss that you just can’t understand,” Carol Abraham said. “She was patching the world, one person at a time. They all had a story; the Shane story is just one of them.”

Shane Bernier will turn 8 on Wednesday, and so far he has received approximately 2 million cards, said Nathalie Bernier, Shane’s mother, in a telephone interview from Lancaster, Ontario.

Bernier began receiving cards in January, when he announced his birthday wish, and now 20,000 to 40,000 cards arrive daily at the family home in Lancaster, she said.

Bernier was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004, and in June 2006, 108 weeks into his 130-week treatments, he relapsed. He is now halfway through a 105-week chemotherapy treatment, after which Shane has an 80 percent chance of remaining healthy for the rest of his life, his mother said. Shane’s younger brother Jacob, 6, is a bone marrow match if surgery becomes necessary.

Despite the volume of cards, Nathalie Bernier said, her son reads every message. Although he can only read notes written in French, he is adamant that his mother read to him the cards in English.

Nathalie Bernier said she has not yet read cards sent in memory of Susan Abraham, but that when she heard of the memorial effort she was “overwhelmed.”

“It’s amazing. I’m speechless,” she said. “I feel so bad that it happened this way, but I’m so grateful for what they are doing for my son. It’s so nice.”

The Guinness Book of World Records does not have an official category for most birthday cards received, but the organization has considered creating the division for Shane, Nathalie Bernier said. Although a separate category is unlikely, the main goal is to make Shane happy, she said.

A box filled with 1,140 cards was mailed to Ontario last Friday and bore the return address of Hampden Academy.

Weighing in at 22 pounds, 10 ounces, the box was from students, parishioners of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Hampden, and community members who dropped off cards at the high school. Cindy Carlisle, a school administrator, then mailed the special package.

Susan Abraham’s mission has spread around the state since her death. The Key Club at Dexter Regional High School began its effort before Abraham’s accident. It sent about 120 cards on Monday. The Lubec Consolidated School, which has a total enrollment of 169 students from kindergarten to 12th grade, sent more than 200 cards that students made during breaks and art classes, said Principal Peter Doak.

“Obviously the young lady had done a lot for the community, and she was trying to help this child, and we thought we’d try to help her in her efforts,” Doak said. “It’s great for the kids, especially if they understand why we are doing it.”

Stanley Abraham said dozens of people e-mailed the Hampden-Gilpatrick Funeral Home, where his daughter’s wake was held, many indicating they would help continue Susan’s dream.

“You don’t know me and I don’t know you,” Stanley Abraham said, reading an e-mail response from a woman in Ipswich, Mass. “I read your daughter’s obituary, and as a mother of two daughters, I [can’t] imagine the pain you are in. … I just sent your request for cards in lieu of flowers. We will try to help finish your daughter’s project,” he finished.

“If you asked me two weeks ago what it would be like to lose my daughter, I would have had an answer, but I would have had no idea what it would feel like,” he said. “All I know is how proud I am of Susan and the wonderful things she was doing. It was always a dream of hers to help others.”

Anyone who would like to participate in the effort can send cards to Shane Bernier, P.O. Box 484, Lancaster, Ontario, KOC 1N0, Canada.