At birth, Teagan appeared to be not only perfect, but an unusually beautiful baby. She had ten toes and ten fingers, and the most striking big, blue eyes lined with thick, dark lashes. She was gorgeous.
But, she didn’t act like a normal baby should. She couldn’t lift her head, or sit or do any of the things average babies did. There was something terribly “wrong” with her and no matter how many doctors she visited, no one could figure out what it was. There was no name for her disabilities, there was no category to put her in. She just wasn’t “right”. But, although she couldn’t sit, or speak, or walk, she was always happy. She didn’t fight against her situation, she just laid in her special stroller and smiled.
Bo, on the other hand, was born a normal child. He was rambunctious and wild, the way boys should be. He loved to run and play. He was well-liked and always had a lot of friends. He found humor in everything, and he laughed. A lot.
But, then the teen years came. And, right as he was entering into the thick of changing hormones, harder schoolwork and social stress, his beloved mother was diagnosed with a particularly difficult form of cancer.
For the first time in Bo’s life, nothing was funny. Depression took over his body, as cancer took over his mom’s body. She lost her hair and Bo let his grow long and dirty. He began wearing only the darkest, rattiest clothes he could find to show the world how much he was hurting. But, still the pain was too much. So, he began cutting himself, shallow cuts at first and then deeper, ugly ones as his pain grew.
He escaped to his best friend’s house on the weekends to get a break from having to watch his mom suffer the effects of chemo and radiation. And, on Sundays he accompanied the family to church.
And, there his path crossed little Teagan’s.
One Sunday, he was asked to keep an eye on Teagan while his friend’s mom taught the other kids their Sunday school lesson. Teagan was ensconced in her stroller as usual, smiling at things that no one else could seem to see.
After teaching the other kids, his friend’s mom peeked into the baby room and saw Teagan nestled in Bo’s arms. She was cuddled next to his grubby dark tee shirt and his ripped jeans. Bo’s head was bowed down towards Teagan’s. She had one tiny hand on his scarred arm and she reached up with the other hand to bat at the long, dark curls that hung from his head. She focused in on his face and laughed, a sweet little gurgling sound of pure joy. She seemed to smile right into his soul. She didn’t see a troubled, dirty, scarred teenager. She saw someone beautiful and worth saving.
And, Bo looked down at her and he smiled. His body, usually so tense from all the pain it held, was relaxed, and you could see the peace in his face as Teagan smiled up at him, looking deep into his eyes as she gently played with his hair.
Teagan may not have had much to give, but she gave Bo all of it. And, that tiny, little, broken body healed Bo in a way that no one else could.
Perhaps, she wasn’t really broken after all. Perhaps, she was perfect.
Read more of Ann’s contributions to allmomdoes here.
