Hope despite the pain

Milciádes is a nine year old boy that sustained a severe head injury. The doctors have concluded that he has very little brain tissue. Children in this condition, if left untreated, die within two years. That’s why his case is quite extraordinary because when he is spoken to he reacts and even smiles. Before being admitted to the clinic his father forced him to beg on the streets. Marianna still remembers the first time she saw him: “The first time I saw Milciádes he was lying on his bed holding his paralyzed arm with his good one. He didn’t move or speak. What I saw before me affected me so much that I couldn’t go near him. A few days later he came down with a case of the measles and the patient next to him, a five year old child, had to be moved. This left Milciádes completely alone. He began to cry inconsolably. I decided I had to do something to relieve of some of his pain. I approached his bed and broke out with the only song I knew how to sing in Spanish. Something akin to ‘Pop goes the weasel’. Milciádes immediately began to laugh. As the days went by, each time I walked into his room and said, ‘What’s up, Mil?’, before he could even see my face he began to look for me reached out to find me with his good arm. All of this is amazing to me given that a child in his condition does not normally respond to stimuli. I realized at that moment the amazing power of Christ to make his Presence known.”

Marcos is a 40 year old man diagnosed with AIDS. Marianna, Chiara, and Anna remember one thing in particular about him: he insisted he wanted his picture taken. “In all of his years – Chiara explained – no one had ever taken his picture. But the smile with which he requested his picture be taken helped us realize that this man was not afraid to die.” He told them on several occasions: “I have already found paradise right here, where I am. That’s why I am not afraid of what happens next.”
Mariela was 31 years old and had given birth to two children, the father being the man she lived with. She had breast cancer but ultimately the cancer spread to her bones and to her brain. When she arrived at the clinic she spoke with no one. She was extremely angry. Two days later, she began to smile. She finally asked Fr. Aldo to administer the sacrament of marriage to her and her long time companion. She died a few days later wearing her wedding gown, her hair and nails done, and smelling of fine perfume. Mariela died smiling. “She had understood – explained Marianna – that the grace she received in this place was worth more than life itself.”