A stolen content update on previous stolen content

Just about bedtime here, but I wanted to pass this along for those of you who actually cared about a story I posted a couple of weeks back. For those of you that didn't care, just move along, there is nothing to see here.

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

A second lasting gift for Iraqi boy BY JULIAN KESNER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 An Iraqi boy who received lifesaving surgery thanks to the efforts of a U.S. soldier was given another precious gift yesterday - this time from the slain serviceman's widow. Charlotte Freeman, 31, hugged 11-year-old Ali and gave him the Sony PlayStation PSP video game player that her husband, Army Reserve Capt. Brian Freeman, had taken with him to Iraq. "Ali had his surgery [last] Wednesday, and on that same day, I received Brian's personal effects from Iraq," said Freeman, holding up the game player. "This was Brian's, so it's really a gift from him also," she said as she handed it to the grateful boy. Smiling back at his savior's wife, Ali was visibly overwhelmed. "He wishes he had a chance to stay here and never go back to Iraq," said a translator. Before he was killed in Iraq, Capt. Freeman promised Ali and his father that he would get the boy to the U.S. for surgery to repair a hole in his heart. After her husband's death, Charlotte Freeman made sure the promise was kept. The 31-year-old widow, who is raising two young children on her own in Temecula, Calif., flew to New York on Saturday to meet Ali in person at Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, L.I., days after the boy's successful open-heart surgery. "It's been an incredible healing process for me," she said yesterday, fighting back tears. "This whole experience comes at a very dark time for me, but it's also been a wonderful gift." Capt. Freeman was abducted and killed in the city of Karbala on Jan. 20 - hours before Ali and his father reportedly received their travel visas. Schneider doctors will give Ali one last checkup today. Cardiology chief and pediatrics chairman Dr. Fred Bierman said Ali's postsurgery progress has been normal and without complications. The boy and his father, Abu Ali, whose last name is being withheld for fear of reprisal in Iraq, could be on a plane home as early as next week.