She is Special

There were many ideas for future blogs that I planned to write.

But this has to take precedence.

Every life has to carry it’s personal cross, the kind of cross that can challenge the core of it’s existence.

My recent entry to the blog world has opened up to me lives and experiences of those whose courage to go on no matter what is unfathomable.

What I came across yesterday was one of those.

At one level it is more then sad, at another just amazing.

This is about a 26-year-old mother with four children and a charmed life full of loving people and idyllic surroundings that she takes pains to create and sustain.

She herself is wholesome and pretty. She even has freckles on her cheeks.

When the youngest child was not yet one, she and her husband went flying in a small aircraft with the person who had taught her husband how to fly. Someway into the flight the engine stopped. They were lucky that this was near a hospital that specializes has one of the best burns unit in America.

But within twenty-four hours, their instructor friend died of complications from his burns.

Her husband was in a coma for five weeks or so with 45% burns. She had 83%. 83%!!

Her husband was released from hospital a couple of months before her. One side of his face is scarred.

It was six or seven months before she was able to come out of the hospital, with severe disfigurement. Her children who had been looked after by her two sisters wouldn’t look at her, come close to her for months.

Surgeries after surgeries happen to help her mobility, to rebuild her appearance.

It is only last month that she could get herself to post photos of her self on the blog. It is absolutely heart breaking.

She posts about her physical and mental trauma, about how every moment, every movement is a reminder of the life she has lost. She has to struggle to remind herself that behind that destroyed appearance she is who she is and always will be.

But she also posts about the fun breaks she takes with her totally loving extended family. She shops and goes out to eat – she does not hide herself – that in itself requires courage. Being stared at for all the wrong reasons is never easy and will never be easy.

They talk of the time before the accident as BC and the time after as AC.

Her husband has been by her every step of the way, looking after her, loving her through it all. The entire family got together to throw a party on the anniversary of their accident to celebrate life.

I have no words to describe her faith, her courage and attitude to be the best she can be to the world around and to herself.

She has , thrown parties before the ‘back to school’ day, made Halloween costumes for her children. She has flowers on her dinner table every day. She is in love with all those babies that are being born in the family. She wants it to be her turn now.

A very important support for has been her faith in her ‘Father in Heaven’.

Cheers girl! The world would be poorer without you.