FAMILY NEWS FROM AFAR

I received a picture of my niece Cathy’s daughter that was published in their local newspaper. She was last year’s homecoming queen for her local high school. What a wonderful thing for the family. My late brother, Charles would be so proud. There were also some pictures of Cathy’s family, too. Of the ten people, we had to guess who was who. We hadn’t seen them since my mother’s funeral. That happens with scattered families.

I started thinking of the circumstances of Cathy’s birth. She must be in her late thirties now. We drove for two hours to visit the hospital when she was born. After seeing her mother, we were looking at Cathy in the nursery, when a nurse who knew my husband stopped to talk. Pointing out our new niece to her, she informed us that she had been present when they performed surgery on her. She was the youngest baby that had been operated on in that hospital. She was surprised we didn’t know.

This was totally shocking to us and moved me to tears. We went back to my sister-in-law’s room and asked what the problem was and why we hadn’t been told. My mother hadn’t been told either.

Cathy had been born with a section of her bile duct not formed and she could not be fed. They were sending her to the Children’s hospital in Pittsburgh for surgery to resection her large intestine. We visited her in the hospital there and saw what looked like a little bird with tubes coming out of her. She remained there for six weeks or so with many doctors trying different experiments with her.

Then an interesting thing happened, my mother called the hospital and reamed out the doctors who were taking care of her. She was still being fed intravenously after all this time. My mother said she needed real food. They released Cathy and the parents took her home and fed her. We saw her a few weeks later and she had blossomed into a healthy baby that looked like nothing had ever happened to her. We were astounded to see this beautiful child.

Cathy married and has three children of her own and is also raising two children of her husband’s sister, who abandoned them.

My own mother, who could be a very difficult person, apparently got some advice from someone higher up (she really knew people in high places) who advised her to get Cathy released. I really don’t know who or why, but she accomplished a miracle.