My name is Angella.  When I was two years old, my twin sisters were
born.  They were beautiful identical twin babies with dark hair and big
brown eyes.  They were normal babies until they were about two years old.

They crawled around, laughed, cried...everything that normal toddlers do.  But then they became cross-eyed and had problems with balance.  This prompted my parents to take them to some specialists to find out what was wrong with Erin and Leslie.  

Eventually they found out that they suffered from a rare disease called MLD for short.  Their conditions gradually worsened, but the constant support of our family and friends lessened my parents' pain.  After a few years, they could not walk, talk, or do anything that their voluntary muscles controlled.  

We were always a religious family, but Erin and Leslie made us even closer to God.  We prayed for them constantly, and my parents even took them to Lourdes, France in hopes that they would be healed.  I guess when your children are suffering you will do everything you can to ease their pain.  

People from all over the world prayed for my sisters.  They touched so many people's lives.  They endured repeated hospitalizations, meals through a g-tube, broken limbs due to their brittle bones, and 14-years with no control over their own bodies.  I guess that its a blessing they lived so long.  

The doctors only gave them a few years.  Erin died first, in the hospital.  It was ironic, because she always seemed to be the stronger of the two. Then six months later to the day, her sister Leslie died in her bed.  

Our loss was very painful, but we knew that they were going to heaven.  They were a blessing to our lives, and an inspiration to so many.  I want to share this story so that their memory lives on forever, just like they are up in heaven.  

I know that they are my very own guardian angels.