Disclaimer: Boredom at own risk.
I met God-given angels throughout the weekend. Angels that He decided should send us His message. I miss them terribly. They gave me courage to live. To learn. To smile.
I met my angels at the camp for the severely disabled.
It wasn't a camp like any I've attended before. It wasn't a camp where I got to enjoy myself. It was a camp where the disabled got to taste a little bit of fun they've waited a year to enjoy.
We fished out cut-up pictures to determine our disabled counterpart and that's how I met my first angel. The angel whose needs I would prioritise before anything in the whole entire world. Whose every desire would be more important to me than anything else could ever be. Whom I learnt to love and miss.
My angel was a 30-year old Sri Ganesan whose disability was MR and epilepsy.
He couldn't speak and needed help with eating and cleaning up; that was what I learnt from the info on his name card.
He reminded me so much of my cousin brother who left us to be with Him two years ago. I had so desperately wanted to help him and make things feel alright for him but I couldn't 'cos I didn't know what to do and he couldn't help me by telling me. I could feel the tears sting my eyes when I tried to touch him and he pulled away. I desperately held it back but when I almost choked him while trying to feed him, I just couldn't take it. I cried like all the worlds problems were being burdened upon my shoulders. I cried so hard I thought I would never survive the weekend. When he got fits, I felt like holding him in my arms and rocking him. I wanted to calm him down.
My lack of knowledge was killing me and torturing him.
So, I learnt up. Begged his teacher and mother to let me in on things to do to make him comfortable. Soon I was improvising methods of eating, drinking and having fun. Food needed to be cut up or torn into small pieces so as to not give his throat a hard time. Fits was no longer a feared thing but a way he expressed joy or sadness. He became my big baby. My child.
By the end of the first day he started to recognize me and help me out by eating when I fed him and having mild fits with huge smiles and grunts of happiness as I try to help him. I learnt to love his crooked grin and pushing his wheelchair and his grip on my hand. I dreaded giving him back to his mommie. I miss him so much.
My other angel is Arasu.
He is like me, Chindian. A cutie. He has muscle dystrophy. The cruelest disease as far as I'm concerned. This man of 22 years is the sweetest guy I've ever met with a heart-melting smile. His sincerity got me hooked. His story got me tearing up 'cos my cousin brother had what he has. I can't bear to think that this funny being could end up the way my cousin did. So I made a resolution - I'm going to be there for him. I'll be at every camp. I'll be there. He touched my heart the way no stranger could ever have done in one day.
~
Sarala, Chris' and Gervienne's "anak"=))It feels weird now that I don't have to put anothers needs before mine. It feels wrong.
" Disability isn't a curse, its a blessing "
Do not pity the disabled, pity yourself 'cos you're able.
The disabled are just normal people with special abilities.
minx wrote at11:04 PM
