When my children were little, I loved to buy books. So many beautiful books. And I was very diverse in what I bought them. Fun and silly and beautiful art. And about other cultures and religions and different ideas.
One book I bought them was
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.
Sadako was a child who lived in Japan and developed leukemia after the Atomic bomb was dropped. While she was ill, a friend encouraged her to fold a thousand paper cranes as doing so would give you your wish.
"Traditionally, it was believed that if one folded 1000 origami cranes, one's wish would come true. It has also become a symbol of hope and healing during challenging times. As a result, it has become popular to fold 1000 cranes (in Japanese, called “senbazuru”)."
And her wish was to live. So, she started folding cranes.
I then folded a thousand paper cranes which I hung from strings (about 5 per string) from our dining room ceiling. They were there for a year and I still have them in a shadow box.
I have folded a thousand paper cranes for two other people. One was my mother; the other was Marsha.
en.wikipedia.org