Mother's Day--Do You Remember?

It’s Mother’s day. A day of breakfast in bed, lunch out with the family, a day of remembrance of our own mothers who are no longer with us. It’s a day a year set aside as a reminder of moms, step-moms, surrogate and foster moms--the woman in your life who helped shape you into the human being you have become.

My thoughts turn to a mother today who gave birth to a healthy baby boy. At five-months of age, he contracted meningitis--which was at the time never before seen in that area of the country. He went down for a nap--typical and ordinary--but he didn’t wake up. He stayed in a coma thirty-one days. When he awakened, he was paralyzed on the right side of his body. His elbow permanently bent, his brain damaged. The doctors expected that he wouldn’t live long. The brightest prognosis was that he would be a vegetable. That he would never speak, never walk, never sit, never feed himself, never develop mentally. He would not live beyond the age of three. They recommended that he be placed in a permanent medical facility; one woman couldn’t take care of him twenty-four seven year in and out.

The mother and father refused, and there were mumblings afoot that there would be a court order issued to demand he be institutionalized. This, authorities then deemed as merciful, removing the heart-... READ MORE...