A blog relay. Hm. Interesting in theory. When my ladays Slice of Humble and What I Really Meant to Say Was... posted their hope stories, I read them and thought "No way. I live in a world without hope. Unless by hope they mean, I hope Kate Upton will deliver me hot wings and a pitcher tonight."
But I got tagged, so, here goes nothing.
Like Humble, I recently had a child get sick enough to visit the hospital. No overnight stay, but an ER visit. My wife ended up taking her, and reporting this story back to me.
While they were sitting in the ER, a young boy, around age 7 or 8, rushed in, carrying his little sister in his arms. His little sister (probably 3 or 4) was having a seizure, had soiled herself, and was still in the midst of convulsing. The nurses took his sister and him into a room near my daughter's and began cleaning her up and taking care of her.
My wife said the little boy knew all of his sister's medical information, her condition, her pediatrician, her specialist, and her medications. This was obviously not the first time he's had to do this for his sister. At this point, I asked my wife the same question I'm sure all of you are wondering, "Where the hell are these kids' parents?"
Don't know the answer to that. I prefer to believe that they were on their way to the hospital from their jobs where they were working hard to provide the care their children need. The short answer is, it really doesn't matter. What matters is that this boy stopped everything because his little sister needed his help. How long do you think it took to remember her medications? Her doctors? How to pronounce her condition? HE DID THIS. He did it because she needed it. That information isn't going to benefit him. He did it to help his sister.
The boy gave me hope. Hope that the future generation may not be so bad. Hope that family will win out over vanity. Hope that empathy is still alive and well. Hope that my kids will have even a smidgeon of the qualities that this boy showed by simply helping his sibling.
Since Melanie Crutchfield is collecting snippets for her "Closing Ceremonies" on August 10th, and it's now August 11th, I'm going to tag people to participate just because I enjoy hearing everyone's stories. :)
Story of a Girl
the crumb diaries
Craughing
See....you had no worries in doing this after all. (It really is August 11, isn't it.....dang. I lost a day somewhere.)
ReplyDeleteI lose days all the time. If you find another Saturday somewhere, please let me know.
Deletewow that is really impressive. I thank God every day that my kids don't have any serious medical problems.
ReplyDeleteMe too. I don't think my kids would be up to this challenge. Not that they couldn't do it, but they are more emotional than rational.
DeleteBoth of my kids and me have serious medical issues. I drilled into their heads what to say, how to spell it (pretty obscure disease) and what to do if anything happened. Sure, we should be wearing medic alert bracelets; but our condition is so complex that it would require a 2 page info and question section. My kids are 19 and 23 now and I'm impressed that they've educated themselves even more and know my medical history. We're frequent flyers @ the local ER. I applaud this remarkable young man! They may have had a young babysitter watching siblings. I certainly hope a parental unit was on his/her way. Great story!
ReplyDeleteI have a heart condition,and can't even remember my own information half the time. I can't even imagine the mental fortitude this kid has.
DeleteWe (kids and me) have been sick for 18 years. To be more accurate, sick but undiagnosed 18 years ago. Diagnosis 13 years ago. Kid must have a good adult in his life and be quite bright. We all need to teach our kids reasoning and problem solving skills. My experience is that our education system doesn't do this until SAT time. I'm an old broad and my kids are older. Hopefully things are better now and schools are not teaching for the inevitable standardized tests.
DeleteI was there, the girl was actually almost the same size as her brother. He said she was born 12-12-01 and that her name was Faithe (with an 'E' on the end, as he said). He was maybe a year older. It was very difficult for him to hold her body especially because she was mid-seizure. Ill never forget him.. he kept whispering "it's okay, I'm with you. I'm not going to leave you". Amazing kid, he gave me hope too.
ReplyDeleteWonderful story....great kid! Hope lives!
DeleteI am all teary eyed! I love this story!! Thanks for sharing and for tagging me. Maybe I need some "hope" right now! I will get on this when tomorrow when I get a fresh dose of pain meds and can sit up for a little longer! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for picking up, and passing the baton! And for wanting to keep it going past today. It's really turned out to be an amazing project, and I hope it keeps going for a while. There are amazing stories out there (like this one), and you never know when you're going to need something to help you believe again.
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
Thanks for taking the time to read my little story. It was great to think about something inspiring, especially with so much animosity in the general news cycle today.
DeleteThanks for picking up, and passing the baton! And for wanting to keep it going past today. It's really turned out to be an amazing project, and I hope it keeps going for a while. There are amazing stories out there (like this one), and you never know when you're going to need something to help you believe again.
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
Now that is some hope right there. Take it where you can get it, and you get it.
ReplyDelete