I sit here tonight doing some research for my Biology class. I am supposed to turn in six articles throughout the semester. The articles are supposed to be related to biology somehow. I found a website dedicated to biology a couple of weeks ago. The site publishes several articles every single week. I had printed off several of them so I would be ready when I had to turn them in. But tonight I decided to do some research on topics that were more interesting to me.

I found several from the first search I did on autism. They were actually quite interesting to me. Then I decided to see if there were any articles on E. coli 0157. I don’t know why I decided to do this. I think I will always be curious at how something like E. coli could take my daughter from me.

The first article I found states, “…cattle fed distiller’s grain have an increased prevalence of E. coli 0157 in their hindgut. This particular type of E. coli is present in healthy cattle but poses a health risk to humans, who can acquire it through undercooked meat, raw dairy products and produce contaminated with cattle manure.… The growth of ethanol plants means more cattle are likely to be fed distiller’s grain, therefore harboring 0157 and potentially a source of health risk to humans… prevalence of 0157 was about twice as high in cattle fed distiller’s grain compared with those cattle that were on a diet lacking the ethanol byproduct.” When I read this the only thing I could think of would be the dairy products. Mari was not a huge dairy person as I gave her soy milk. I don’t know if Mari had any or not but you never know.

Then I read this other article called Common practices at petting zoos put visitors at risk. “E. coli 0157:H7 associated with two Florida petting zoos… Some behaviors that were most strongly associated with illness were feeding a cow or goat, touching a goat and stepping in manure or having manure on your shoes.” I think back to the two occasions where I went out to visit my sister-in-law’s farm when my niece Crysta was here to visit. I remember trying to keep Mari out of where the animals were but it really was a lost cause. Then I remember how I would bring her into the house. She then would just sneak back out through the open window to go outside while my back was turned. I think the one time it took her all of about 30 seconds. If you can imagine a speeding bullet – that was Mari. She was right back out with all the animals just singing and dancing and having a good time. She didn’t have a care in the world.

I guess we will never truly know what happen to Mari. But I guess none of will ever understand either how diarrhea could take the life of such a beautiful, vibrant little girl in just two weeks and two days.