A child's view....

This is a story about a child, not any child but one with a disability of her own, Cerebral Palsy. Her name is Shianne......( in other entries on this blog) This happened during our last visit to the family...

Tania had told her children, as much as they could understand about what was happening to me. The two younger ones had a grasp of it but Shianne , at eight years of age took the information to its logical conclusion.
She knew that I was going to get sicker where-as she on the other hand was going to get better, if she had anything to do with it. With Shianne it is both legs and one arm that are affected by her condition. She is like a beautiful butterfly emerging from a cocoon, ready to spread her wings and fly out into the world.


The rest of the family had gone outside and Shianne and I were in the lounge. She was sitting on the couch and I was at a table. She had been silent for some time and then looking at me she said, very quietly, with a knowledge and understanding far be yon her years....
"Poppa Robert, are you going to die"..............
I answered back, just as quietly, with one word, "Yes".
She held out her arms to me and sitting down beside her and putting my arms around her we became as one, en capsuled in a moment of time. Nothing else mattered to me.....
In a world full of disease, hunger, Wars and natural disasters there are moments of Beauty, Wonderment, love and understanding. This was one of them. There was no need for either of us to say another word. It was but a matter of a few minutes that we sat like that, minutes that went far be yon the time barrier. We were two kindred souls, knowing and understanding what was taking place with our bodies. She with the knowledge that there is no way out for me and I knowing that this young girl, soon to be a woman, was going forward, fighting every inch of the way upwards and outwards wanting to make a name for herself.
The moment passed us by as the family came back inside..... I relayed this story, briefly to Tania, Shianne's mother just a little while ago and finished up by saying to her , "Treasure every moment, every hour that you have with Shianne, she is a wonderful person".
Any disability can be frightful, but there are fighters out there in this world and Shianne and I are but two of them................