"Hi, this is Chris, and welcome to Adventures in Odyssey." The greeting is normal, but the tone is not. Instead of the usual singsong intonation of the English language, Chris uses a downward intonation. Clearly, there is something seriously different about this episode.

We are introduced to a girl named Karen Crosby who has just been diagnosed with cancer. Donna and Whit visit her in the hospital and are surprised at her cheerful spirit. She's not at all depressed and she's working to overcome the disease. In future episodes, there are references to a children's hospital in Odyssey. In this show, however, Karen's roommate is an older woman named Mrs. Murray whose dialogue I greatly enjoy. From all the hospital scenes, I can only conclude that Dr. Davis must be very popular. He's not a character heard on the episode, but the hospital sound effects continually include his being paged along with Drs. Blair and Bruce. It seems kind of an overkill.

While talking with Donna, Karen makes it clear that she still wants to take part in the "Fall Festival" an annual event held at their school. Donna makes sure that Karen's place is held.

Later at the hospital, Donna's mom meets her with some news: Karen's leg had to be amputated in order to stop the spread of cancer. Donna is sad, but Karen is still in good spirits when Donna visits her. Karen tells Donna of a special dream she had when she was in surgery. She saw Jesus healing a lot people with problems, but not all of them. When those who weren't healed asked Jesus why He had passed over them, He responded that He had something better for them. Then He turned and repeated His message to Karen.

Karen gets out of the hospital in time to participate in the Fall Festival. In a very touching scene, Karen reads the words of an old hymn that is referring to Heaven. She is looking ahead to the not so distant future in which she is going to be there herself.

Shortly after, Karen has a relapse and is once again hospitalized. Donna sees her one more time. Karen tells Donna plainly that the doctor's think she's going to die but she's ok with that. She has had the same dream with Jesus again. Everything is going to be all right.

Sage Bolte's (Karen) acting is decent on this episode. However, her final line of "Goodbye Donna" sounds a little overdramatic. The sound of it kind of reminds me of Jessie, Donna's replacement for Karen.

The show suddenly skips a beat after Karen and Donna say goodbye. The next thing you know, it's been a week since Karen's funeral and Whit and Donna are discussing Karen at Whit's End. Donna is worried about forgetting Karen, but Whit assures her that while life will go on, she'll never forget her best friend.

We really don't ever know much about Karen from the tapes since this is the only show that she's in. However, she plays a prominent role in the book "A Stranger's Message" so a lot more about her is revealed. Since the book was released nine years after the tape (although the events supposedly occurred before), it's weird to read the story knowing what happened to Karen. Also weird is the fact that she's a good friend of Lucy in the book and Donna isn't even mentioned.

One final note would be the scene with Connie and Whit discussing Karen. This is the final show before "Connie" and the scene is one of the "building blocks" that is used as a flashback leading to Connie's salvation.

I rate this show a five because I think the issue of a Christian's viewpoint of death was extremely well handled.