of Smiles and Sunshine
Of Smiles and Sunshine !
Life gave me a very weird opportunity. An opportunity to work with the chronically ill children who suffer at very tender ages from chronic problems like leukemia and others.
How does it feel to spend lives in the hospital wards, lives where at the ages of 3-4 years going home is a vacation.
Life reminds them continuously that they are different, so the last thing that they want is us to do is to remind them that by telling them or worse by giving them the so called special attention they do not need.
Let us take the case of a beautiful, angelic little girl of 6 years I will call Snow White ( actual name obviously suppressed) Snow White because she was kept in sleep by medication for almost the whole day so that she does not hurt herself. This little one suffered from a medium stage leukemia and was treated in one of the most reputed hospitals in Mumbai. She had a problem of hurting herself and others. She would bite people who came near her. She would bang her head on the walls. If people brought her toys she broke them. Chocolates were ripped apart and thrown. So to prevent her from hurting herself and also protect her from the little pain she suffered continuously from her medical problem her doctors kept her under sedation throughout the day.
I happen to visit her once. I got her a teddy bear that she instantly threw away. But surprisingly she opened my book that I had by mistake placed on her bed, turned a few pages and kept it away without attempting to damage it. While all her toys bore the signs of her anger a small caterpillar ( her room was excellent, just above the garden of the hospital and her mummy opened the windows once in a while to let fresh air in ) on the window sill was welcomed by a smile and a single word " butterfly". I said " beta its a caterpillar", she said " teacher said grow up butterfly". Bingo !!! the little beautiful Snow White suddenly opened my eyes to the reality of what chronically ill children like.
They like a normal life. With real friends, real friendship. Real world with caterpillars that grow up to be butterflies. Not costly toys or all our sympathies. While we should take special care of them we should show them that they are different by pampering them. This is a reminder to them that they do not belong to real life because they are suffering from something.
We went to the garden then; it was her first visit to the garden since her 5 month stay there. Her extremely caring doctor came with us. It was mid July and the rains had made the garden even more beautiful and bountiful. But that day was sunny, and there was sunshine and there were smiles. Our dear Snow white then talked and talked a lot about flowers, trees and animals she had learnt in 1st standard school.
A friend gave her a ChildCraft series then. To explore the real world and develop her love for nature, science and fun. And she loved it!.
Today the lovely Snow white goes to school, jumps , plays and is full of life. Thanks to her loving parents and her doctors. I talk to her sometimes and she talks and talks a lot of things she learns in school and her friends.
In ways some of you may not know the little Snow White saved my life!
Life gave me a very weird opportunity. An opportunity to work with the chronically ill children who suffer at very tender ages from chronic problems like leukemia and others.
How does it feel to spend lives in the hospital wards, lives where at the ages of 3-4 years going home is a vacation.
Life reminds them continuously that they are different, so the last thing that they want is us to do is to remind them that by telling them or worse by giving them the so called special attention they do not need.
Let us take the case of a beautiful, angelic little girl of 6 years I will call Snow White ( actual name obviously suppressed) Snow White because she was kept in sleep by medication for almost the whole day so that she does not hurt herself. This little one suffered from a medium stage leukemia and was treated in one of the most reputed hospitals in Mumbai. She had a problem of hurting herself and others. She would bite people who came near her. She would bang her head on the walls. If people brought her toys she broke them. Chocolates were ripped apart and thrown. So to prevent her from hurting herself and also protect her from the little pain she suffered continuously from her medical problem her doctors kept her under sedation throughout the day.
I happen to visit her once. I got her a teddy bear that she instantly threw away. But surprisingly she opened my book that I had by mistake placed on her bed, turned a few pages and kept it away without attempting to damage it. While all her toys bore the signs of her anger a small caterpillar ( her room was excellent, just above the garden of the hospital and her mummy opened the windows once in a while to let fresh air in ) on the window sill was welcomed by a smile and a single word " butterfly". I said " beta its a caterpillar", she said " teacher said grow up butterfly". Bingo !!! the little beautiful Snow White suddenly opened my eyes to the reality of what chronically ill children like.
They like a normal life. With real friends, real friendship. Real world with caterpillars that grow up to be butterflies. Not costly toys or all our sympathies. While we should take special care of them we should show them that they are different by pampering them. This is a reminder to them that they do not belong to real life because they are suffering from something.
We went to the garden then; it was her first visit to the garden since her 5 month stay there. Her extremely caring doctor came with us. It was mid July and the rains had made the garden even more beautiful and bountiful. But that day was sunny, and there was sunshine and there were smiles. Our dear Snow white then talked and talked a lot about flowers, trees and animals she had learnt in 1st standard school.
A friend gave her a ChildCraft series then. To explore the real world and develop her love for nature, science and fun. And she loved it!.
Today the lovely Snow white goes to school, jumps , plays and is full of life. Thanks to her loving parents and her doctors. I talk to her sometimes and she talks and talks a lot of things she learns in school and her friends.
In ways some of you may not know the little Snow White saved my life!
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