My week started out with a phone call from the Schwarz’s family informing me of her husband’s and their father’s death.  This morning some good news!  MSNBC’s JoNel Aleccia reported on an early Christmas present in her story this morning “ Tiny Listeria Survivor Comes Home for Christmas:”

Three months after she was born, Kendall Paciorek is finally home, just in time for Christmas.  The premature girl from Fishers, Ind., is one of the tiniest victims of last summer’s deadly listeria outbreak in cantaloupe, which sickened 146 people, including 30 who died.

Kendall spent the first several weeks of her life in an incubator, fighting off an infection contracted when her mother ate tainted melon traced to Jensen Farms of Holly, Colorado.

She’s strong enough now to sleep in her own crib in the house where big sister Madison, 4, loves to color pictures of Santa.  Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the outbreak over this month, and the rest of the world seems poised to move on.

111220-health-listeria-01.photoblog500.jpgBut for Kendall and her family, the impact of the foodborne illness caused by a summer snack is just beginning.