In 1999, Missy Armstrong started attending hair school. There, she met Sara, and the two quickly became inseparable. Missy and Sara, who live in Milan, IL, have been best friends ever since that fateful day over 17 years ago, though they've had their fair share of difficulty.
As their lives progressed, Missy and Sara were always there for one another, through the good times and the bad. Recently, though, there have been more of the latter than the former.
Unfortunately, the best friends will soon be separated: Sara is very sick and her days are limited. Sara is a single mother who has three young children, and she was terrified that when she inevitably passed away, her kids would be split up.
"She said she can deal with the fact that she's dying, but she can't deal with the fact that her kids will be split," Missy told WQAD 8. So Missy did what any true best friend would do in this situation: She offered to adopt Sara's three children.
"She would do it for me," Missy explained. "She just bawled and was like, 'Are you kidding me?' and she said 'You swear?' and I said 'Yeah.'"
One of Missy's other friends, Rhonda Debruyn, wanted to find a way to help out as well. Since it isn't clear whether or not Sara will make it to Christmas, Rhonda wanted to make sure her children would still have something to look forward to on Christmas day. So she took to Facebook and asked for gift donations for the children — and Rhonda and Missy were overwhelmed by the community's support.
Sara is not expected to recover, but hopefully knowing that her children are safe and together will give her some peace of mind in her final days.
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[H/T: WQAD 8]
