Ashley Conrad talks to Maureen Klues of Memoirs by Maureen about her business and a contest for you just in time for Christmas.

Send us your best holiday memories. They don’t have to be 1,000 words (but they can be) or they can be a couple of sentences. Send them to news@muddyrivernews.com or respond in the messages of our social media platforms. We’ll pick a winner and you’ll get a gift certificate from Maureen to go toward one of her storytelling books and a gift card to The Abbey.

The gift certificate includes life storytelling services for one person, which includes one 60-minute interview resulting in a designed life storybook to be shared with family and friends. A physical holiday gift certificate will be delivered to the winner prior to Christmas. 

The contest runs now through December 16 and we’ll announce the winner on December 19.

Maureen’s Christmas memory to share: This Christmas memory is more of a Christmas miracle. 25 years ago, on Christmas Day, my daughter had emergency open heart surgery for a hole in her heart. I was 21 years old at the time and did not grasp the gravity of the situation or how truly miraculous the outcome was.

We lived near Chicago at the time and my daughter was rushed to the children’s hospital with heart failure. We knew she would have to have surgery at some point, but we were hoping to push it until she was a little bit older and bigger. She was three months old and weighed under ten pounds. 

It just so happened that a heart surgeon, rated the third best heart surgeon in the world at the time, was a visiting surgeon that week. The hospital reviewed the top surgeries with him, and my daughter was one of the three surgeries he chose to perform.

On Christmas day, this world-renowned surgeon saved my daughter’s life. I consider this luck and quite possibly a miracle. Having a child in the hospital on Christmas day was heartbreaking, nerve- wracking, and a blessing all wrapped into one. It forever changed my view on what the holidays are truly about.

Now, your story might not make you tear up like Maureen’s did, but I’ll bet you have a couple almost as good.

Send us your memory today!