Friday, July 13, 2012

For Ava

I'm not very good at dealing with sad things, but I am very okay at dealing with words. Unfortunately, Scranton and many other areas are on the brink of sadness as we wait for a little girl, Ava, to leave this world and start her next journey. I think that Ava was three when the doctors found an inoperable brain tumor. My mother was her preschool teacher for the last two years (this is why I'm almost certain it was when she was three) so Ava has a special place in my heart even though I have never met her. My mother has been praying for her since the day she heard of Ava and her story. We have all been hoping for a miracle for Ava, from people in itty bitty North Scranton to what seems like all over the country.

So like most people, I'm sure, I am glued to Facebook waiting for updates on Ava's condition. Ava's mother, Gianni, used Facebook to reach out to people for prayers and positive thoughts. As if Ava needs anymore than the strength of a mother's prayer, Ava also constantly has the prayers and positive thoughts from over 5,000 other people that she may have never even met. Ava has become a part so many lives and we are all just wishing her a painless journey from here on out. She has fought for a very long time and at this point is seems as though there is nothing else that could be done. Except hope that the rest of her time here is painless.

I am one to believe that death is a part of life. That without death, there would be no life. Like without darkness, there would be no light. But death of children. That is something that I just cannot grasp. Since I was a kid, I was surrounded by the death of children. The first one was my friend Martin, who was just ten years old. Kimmy was five when she lost her battle with leukemia. There are many in-between but the last one was my cousin, Christian, who died in his sleep when he just shy of four months old. Children dying just makes no sense to me. I imagine that the same is true for you. How can a life that has hardly been lived, be taken away?

But in Ava's case I can see some positive things coming from this tragedy. I can see a community that came together. The school community too. Fundraisers and support constantly pouring in for Miss Ava. I see children learning compassion early on in life. And I also see people taking a second out of their busy, first-world-problems filled days to think of other people. The amount of support that I see just on Facebook for Ava is overwhelming for me. I cannot imagine how her parents feel about it. I would just be drowning with gratitude for all the support and knowing that I wasn't alone, even if I felt that I was alone.

Something more must be said about Ava's mother. I have never met her but her hope and faith and resilience is outstanding and heartwarming. The things that a mother goes through for her children impress me on an everyday basis. But, I know firsthand what a mother must do to love a child with special needs. There are not enough things I can say about women like this. These sort of mothers are extraordinary and I am overwhelmed with pride and admiration when I think about mothers like Ava's mom or my mother. I just hope that Gianni knows that she has done a fantastic job in giving her daughter a beautiful and blessed life.

I would like to ask you to just keep Ava and her family in your thoughts and prayers. And also her little preschool friends who may not understand it now but one day might feel it. Ava's family appears to practice the catholic faith. So I ask for you, no matter what you believe, to send thought and a prayer that Ava makes her way to heaven as painless as possible. Let her be comforted by angels of family members gone by and help her to feel at home. Please say a prayer that her family finds peace in this time and can carry on to keep the Miracle of Ava going. In her five ridiculously short years, she has touched more people than you and I probably ever will (no offense). I hope that you can each take a moment for a prayer, thought, a good vibe- I don't care, just something positive to help Ava get to where she's going and her family ease their hurting.


http://www.miracleforava.info/



May Angels Lead You In

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