Dear Editor: On behalf of the Walden and Bowles families, I want to thank everyone for their prayers, thoughts and concerns during the illness of my daughter Jessica Walden Bowles. Special thanks to the churches and people of faith around the world who prayed for a miracle, Newton County paramedics, Newton Medical Center, Life Flight, Emory University Hospital and the many others. Without your selfless help, we could not have made it.

My daughter, who has never been sick, had recently graduated college, got a new job and was married. On Mother's Day she suffered a massive stroke, which was unexpected. She's 21 years old. She was on life support for seven days and we were told she might not make it, but thanks to the concerns and work of our hospital professionals, my daughter is at home with very little effects from the stroke and should make a full recovery. Thank you to the many people we didn't even know offering support and our community coming together to support one another in such a crisis. We are so thankful from the bottom of our hearts.

We hear the bad about our community all the time. Well, we see we have a great community of caring, helpful, loving people who, no matter what color our skin or where we come from, come together and make a difference. Again, thanks.