A Mother’s Nightmare
It wasn’t a cry, it was a sob. The night was so peaceful. My girls were in bed, sound asleep. I decided to take a quick shower before bed…
That’s when it happened. I started to sob. I wish I could say this didn’t happen often but it does.
Our Angel. After 2 1/2 years of fertility treatments, we were finally pregnant with my daughter Talia. From the moment she was born, we knew she was a gift from God. What we didn’t realize was how much she would teach us about life, love, strength and compassion.
The Accident. It was December, 2010. Our new puppy, Lola, arrived just before Christmas and the girls couldn’t have been more excited to spend their vacation with her. Just after Christmas, Talia and Julia were playing with Lola when it happened. A rod-iron and glass candelabra fell directly on Talia’s face. The glass cut through her face and lips. When my husband called me at work, he was in tears and could barely talk. All I remember him saying was “It’s really bad… It’s really bad.” His voice was so shaky. I immediately grabbed my things and met the ambulance at the police station.
The moment I saw her I knew how bad it really was. I could see the pain she was in just from her eyes, and I could see that my baby would never look the same again. It KILLED me to know that there was NOTHING I could do to make it all go away for her. I was her mother and I didn’t protect her! It took everything inside me not to break down, but my strength actually came from Talia.
In the ambulance, she reached out her hand to me and said “Mommy, don’t worry, it’s going to be ok.”
My baby, who was in the worst pain ever, was the strongest of us all. She showed me compassion when she was at her worst. Her bravery didn’t stop there. She amazed me more and more as the day went on. She was my rock when I wanted to be hers. I knew she was scared but she didn’t want to show it. In her hospital room, I held her in my arms while we waited for surgery. I brushed her hair away from her face, kissed her forehead over and over and told her story after story to take her mind off everything.
There is so much I want to say about the day and the days after, but it would take me forever. Our job as parents is to teach our children well, and to protect them. My daughter has taught me more in her 7-years here than I think I have taught her. Her surgery was very successful. She does still have scars on her face. For us, they are a constant reminder about what happened. It kills me that she is aware of them, that she talks about them every-so-often, and that at her young age, she does question whether she is still pretty with the scars.
My little girl is truly beautiful, inside and out, and no scar can take that away from her. She leaves a mark on everyone that meets her. There is nothing about Talia that doesn’t radiate beauty and that is something that I will remind her of for the rest of her life.
I never thought I would write this post. Somehow though, during my sobs, I felt like I needed to. It was the hardest thing our family has faced to date. I will never forget the people who supported us through it. Talia’s scars are still visible and most likely will be for a long time (possibly forever), but we were lucky. We had an amazing surgeon work on her. Many people don’t even realize she has scars on her face until it is mentioned. Our family is fortunate that her accident wasn’t life threatening, but we were affected nonetheless… SHE was affected. As parents, we all have our own stories, and we handle them the best we can, but… our children… they are simply amazing!
