It was just yesterday that I posted about a how a couple back here in India treated their mentally challenged 10 year old. It makes my heart cry when I hear such stories. How can any parent treat their child like that. That makes me remember my dad's second cousin. Who was just the opposite.
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Back here in India, we are allowed to get married to our blood relatives and my dad's cousin got married to his. While medically it is not advisable, but that doesn't stop us Indians from doing what has been going on for ages. Anyways, so this man got married to his relative and that must have been the issue. They had troubles conceiving and after many years they did have a baby girl. The baby was born premature around 30 years back from now when the medical system back here was not as precise as it was today. The girl looked different and the parents thought it was because she was premature. Months later it was found out that she had a difficult cogneital condition that made her have only 3 layers of the skin while a normal individual has 7.
The condition made her life worse. A thin membrane would grow over her fingers overnight making it turn into a fist. Even a mosquito bite would make her bleed immensely which is not treated would turn into a huge wound with worms. Her life was a living hell.
I was too young to understand her condition. She wanted to play with other kids, but she couldn't. She wanted to attend public gatherings, but whenever she did people distanced themselves from her because she looked weird to them.
I remember once I went to hospital when she was severely sick. She was made to sit in a makeshift bathtub filled with a medicated solution because she had many wounds on her body. I must have been 10 year old then and I couldn't eat for days.
She was a very good student. She couldn't attend school, but she cleared her board exams with above expectations marks all by studying herself. She was a fighter. She used to write with pen clutched between her thumb and index finger because all the other fingers were covered in skin.
She lost the battle when she was 17 and I must say it was a relief. She would have been 30 if she was alive now. But, I am happy she is no more. Her parents miss her, but feel good that she didn't have to suffer more. She was her parents only child. They didn't think of having another one despite of knowing that she would not survive long. They believed that having another one would divert their attention from her and they didn't want that to happen.
They gave her the best treatment shelling out every penny they had. They cook her share of food along with theirs and give it to animals and birds because they find peace in that.
I had to write about this when I wrote about bad parents. Both good and bad exist in this world. You just have to choose who you want to be.
