Dying girl's Christmas wish granted by 10,000 carolers

So wonderful to see the thousands of people who came together to make this little girls wish come true.

Thoughts and prayers to Laney and her family.

(CNN) -- Eight-year-old Laney Brown will never see Christmas again. Her doctors say leukemia will take her soon.

Laney loves music. Loves to dance, loves Taylor Swift, loves Christmas carols.

As her dying wishes, she asked to meet the country superstar and for some people to come by her house for a night of caroling, CNN affiliate WFMZ reported.

On Friday -- her birthday -- Laney and Swift video chatted through FaceTime, a software application that allows callers to see each other on Apple products.

Saturday night the singers came. At first it was hundreds of people, then thousands. Then it was 10,000.

They came to her home in West Reading, Pennsylvania, and even though she was too weak to go to the window, she heard the wonderful music.

"I can hear you now!!! Love you!" she said through a photo her family posted to a Team Laney Facebook page showing the girl, two thumbs up despite a breathing mask, lying in bed.

Laney was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia seven months ago. Last week doctors told her family that she has 70% cancer cells in her blood. She came home from the hospital on Thursday and said she wanted to hear Christmas carols.

So two days later people came from all over. Her dance team was there to honor her through one last number. Even Santa showed up.

Many of them held back tears.

"I can't even express how I feel," Krysta Rebe, who has a daughter Laney's age, told WFMZ.

It was only an hour of singing, but it lifted the spirits of everyone who jammed the block outside the Browns' home.

On Facebook one woman wrote that she had seen and taken part in a miracle.

"As much as I want that miracle to be saving the life of an 8-year-old little girl, Laney, the miracle was an 8-year-old little girl teaching an entire community, town, city and the whole country the true meaning of Christmas," Marianne Franken wrote.

Laney's parents issued a statement Thursday thanking the public for its support and asking for privacy in the difficult days ahead.

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And it still warms my heart. Please do not forget that no matter how bad things may seem, you could always be spending Christmas is Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, or Iraq. Not as an American soldier, but as a resident.

We have it good here in the States, even those of us that have it pretty bad, still have it better than a lot of the world.

Remember to be thankful not for just what you have, be grateful for what you don't have.


Merry Christmas everyone.

Crap!

I'm always known as a tough old bastard but now I'm in tears!

Merry Christmas Dammit!

Peace

reply to post by jude11


You are not alone there Jude.

I can say the exact same of myself.

Merry Christmas.

Double post

I live a few miles away from Laney's house.
She passed away at 3:10 this morning.
One of her wishes was to live to see Christmas this year. She got that final wish.

reply to post by butcherguy




I hadn't heard that. Kinda wish I wouldn't have. Makes me sad.

RIP little one.

reply to post by MrLimpet

Sorry to break the bad news.
The good news is that the groups supporting research into childhood cancers were present at various levels in this story, raising awareness and funds to help other children avoid this end.

Rest in peace, dear little one.

It is very sad when a child dies from cancer that in all accounts could have been cured if big pharma was truly interested in curing it. However, they are more interested in making money than saving a child's life.

The average person desires to help and wants to cure it but every time something promising is found it's quickly squashed. Thank God that at least thousands of people and the country singer came to make a little girls wish come true.

There's a special place in hell for those that harm children and I'm sure an even more special place for those that will let a child die so that they can make more money.

RIP little one