Jerry,
I'm a cartoonist and a longtime Muppet fan from way back. I wanted to share this story with you:
Just a few years ago now, my girlfriend (now fiancee), knowing how huge a Muppet fan I was, tricked me into drawing my favorite Muppeteers with their characters as a supposed gift for a friend of hers. As it turned out, the trick was on me, as she took the caricatures I drew (of you and Floyd, Dave and Gonzo and Bill and Pepe) and sent them off to the Henson Company in New York with the hopes of getting them autographed and sent back to her as a gift for me on my birthday.
By the time my birthday rolled around, she still hadn't heard back from the Henson Company. Believeing that she'd sent the caricatures to the wrong department, she just came out and told me of her plans. I was touched that she even tried to pull something like this off, and told her the effort she made was the best gift I could get.
A couple days later, however, we received a thick manilla envelope in the mail with a familar green face on the front. Carefully opening it and removing the contents, there before the both of us were my childhood dreams laid out on 8 1/2 X 11 paper, my caricatures, fully autographed by my childhood and adult heroes, amongst them, you, the great Jerry Nelson. Needless to say, I was touched beyond belief that she went to this trouble, and just as much that you guys took the time to honor her request. So now that I hear that you're on the road to recovery and saw this chance to catch you attention, I just wanted to say thank you for your simple, kind gesture, which not only made my birthday (the greatest by far) but my life a little bit brighter. You'll always be one of my heroes.