Chris Millard was a young boy who had cancer. Going through this trial was very difficult for him. He had many things that was expected of him at the hospital. To deal with these trials, he wrote a short story about Sir Millard who went out questing from Camelot. During this quest, he runs into an evil witch called Raptenahad, who captures him almost instantly.
Raptenahad tells Sir Millard that if he performs certain tasks for him, she will give him one of four diamonds representing Courage, Wisdom, Honesty, and Strength. The story is Sir Millard's trial to obtain these diamonds and break free from the curse of the evil witch.
I don't want to spoil the bulk of the story, but it is extremely well written for a mere child. He tells a strong and interesting story that is worth experiencing. It wasn't easy to read though, since the entire story is only available in cursive. It also contains all of Chris' mistakes as well as little notes made by his teacher at the time. It is definitely a strange way to read a story, but I suppose teachers at the time had to do this on a daily basis. Someone had to anyways.
It wasn't really that much of an imposition. The story is only 20 pages, and some of those pages are full page illustrations. It's actually really short. The cursive only slows it down slightly.
Interesting factoid: this story was made into a Disney movie. It only premiered on the Disney Channel in 1995, and I did see it. I never really forgot it. I may have remembered it wrong, but it seemed in the movie that Chris dies before he can finish the story, but the actual story is finished. If the movie really did play out like that, they did it to romanticize the story more than was needed.
"The Four Diamonds" is recommended by me. It's not hard to obtain, It's free, and it's short. You just have to stare at cursive for about twenty minutes, and that's the worst of it. This is a wonderful story that was written to deal with a terrible situation, and I am glad this boy left a legacy for other cancer patients to experience after he died in 1972. Rest in peace, Chris.
Click HERE to download/read the story.
This blog was written on April 21, 2022.
Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Also stop by my Amazon.com listing by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/T.K.-Wade/e/B07BQK9RTZ
Check out my books! Thanks!
Fascinating. He made more of his life cut short than most people do their lives who live long. How? He bothered to imagine and create. INSPIRING.
ReplyDeleteIncredibly inspiring. I am still sad he could not have been a best-selling author later in life though.
Delete
ReplyDeleteA very heartfelt review, It's awesome that you came across this story. Instead of rolling over and feeling sorry for himself, he bothered to create. His made his short life worthwhile beyond the many masses, we can be assured that he is still imagining and creating.
I agree. I don't things like that stop when you die. It's too bad the movie made it look like he couldn't finish his story. That was disingenuous.
DeleteHe did what he could in the situation he was in. Now, others can enjoy what he wrote and even be inspired by it. As long as we are here, we should do what we can.
ReplyDeleteYep! We only have a small amount of time to do those things. Some much shorter than others.
Delete