To the Editor:

I want to say thank you to over three thousand readers of The Selma TimesJournal and The Richmond Times Dispatch for the cards and letters you sent to my grandson, Andrew Spradling , while he was waiting for a heart transplant. It was decided he would not survive a transplant and he was taken off the list.

He has just had surgery at the Mayo

Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to straighten

a crooked spine in order to make room for a new heart.

The surgery was a success and he will be put back on the transplant list.

God has answered so many prayers and I thank you for each one.

The well-written article in your paper last year brought precious cards and letters

from many

children in your area. They will be treasured always.

May god bless you all.

Janet Cochran

Roanoke, Va.