People move in and out of your life. You never know when someone will step up and fill a place you never knew was empty. Enter Pete, Kristy and Kayla. Kayla is a beautiful nine-year old with an inquisitive mind and a love for pizza and ice cream. Pete and Kristy are her devoted, committed, intelligent parents.
Kayla has a crazy metabolic condition that only 300 other people in world have. She has spent so many days at Children’s that the CFO of the hospital sent Pete and Kristy a Christmas card. It was one of those odd moments….. “oh hey, we got a Christmas card from the CFO…crap…they know us so well…we’ve been there so often we’re getting Christmas cards.”
When Samantha got sick, Pete and Christy embraced our family. What’s even more impressive is that Kayla embraced Samantha.
“Hi Sam,” Kayla says every time she sees Samantha. “HI SAM!” when Samantha doesn’t respond. Kayla never asks what’s wrong, just accepts Samantha for what she can give.
Kristy and Kayla came to visit Sam when she was in the hospital in August. Kayla had never visited another child in the hospital. She had been there many times as a sick kiddo but never as a visitor. Kayla wheeled her chair in, proudly donning a bright red balloon for Samantha. “HI SAM!” she said.
Kristy and Kayla stayed for a while. Doctors did there rounds, nurses came in and checked on Samantha. It never seemed to bother our brave Kayla. Brave Kayla who came back into the place where she had been poked, prodded and very sick in order to see her friend Samantha.
Christy and Kayla left after an hour or so. I found out later that Kayla started crying when the car left the hospital parking lot.
“Hey Kayla, what’s wrong?” Christy asked, glancing in the rear view mirror.
“I’m sad because I get to leave the hospital but Sam doesn’t.”
Wow. I heard this and I thought about how lucky we are to get to know Kayla and get to know her in way that we never would have had Samantha not been sick.
We have all left the parking lot feeling sad that we get to go home, out, enjoy the sunshine and Samantha doesn’t. Kayla just had the intelligence to express this….maybe because she’s been there so often, maybe because she just loves Samantha and wanted her to go home too. Regardless, Super Sam is very lucky to have Cool Kayla in her life…we all are.
2 comments:
Hey neighbor! So, being a mom is all about hauling kids in and hearing they are fine; you did good. She is having the "normal" things now and you both are learning what is "a flag" or not. Way to go! Progress!
keep on writing, you are great at it and someday, I just know this little girl will treasure all these good words. I know I do.
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Hi Heather, Sam and Bart. We LOVED your little story about our girls. We feel the same way about Sam. Looking forward to the Aquarium. Love, Christy and Kayla
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