“I thought of you last night…it took me 3 and 1/2 hours to get home during the ice storm with the Severn River Bridge closed down.  I worked an extra shift Tuesday to just help out…well…I stopped dead near the Mall/Parole exit for 3 hours!!!  Two cars behind me, a mom and her 2 little girls, slid on the ice.  Their vehicle went under a truck.  Mom was pinned in and had injuries, one little girl had an asthma attack, they both were crying desperately.  Well, I called EMS 3 times and it took 45 minutes to get 2 ambulances driving in the wrong direction on the shoulder to get to us.  At one point I was on the phone with EMS and telling them I felt like the lone ranger out there and needed help.  Then you came to my mind and I realized I had 2 teddy bears in the car…a flash of you with Hugs Across America…I nearly hung up on EMS but not till I told them…get me help out here…all I have are 2 blankets, a first aid kit, found an inhaler for the child having an asthma attack, and, oh yes, 2 teddy bears….I ran to the car under the truck and gave those 2 little girls the bears…they smiled bigger than life and tears abated!  …  they were still clinging to those teddies when they went into the ambulance!  Please Sue, know that your bears are  touching lives out here. After this experience, I will never be without bears again. “

( This from a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland)