Emily S.'s Story

On my third visit to Baca Ortiz, I was just getting the routine down. That
day, I entered one of the rooms with four children in it. One girl was
with her family, so I went straight to the other kids first. I set them
all up with puzzles and markers and paper, and sort of rotated between
each one for a while, talking to them, and playing and drawing with them.
A bit later, the one girl in the same room who had been with her family
when I got there was now alone. I went up to her, she smiled at me, and I
asked her if she wanted a puzzle, or some things to draw with, or
something else to do. She just looked at me, and then looked towards her
own arms, and said no, because she couldn’t lift up her arms. I
immediately felt embarrassed and bad for not noticing before, but both of
her forearms had IV’s in them, and she was trying to keep them still,
holding onto these little blocks that the nurse had given her. I sort of
panicked, and scrambled my words (at this point, my Spanish was still in
need of much improvement), but eventually managed to ask her if I could
just talk to her for a bit. I learned that her name is Rosie, and she is
ten years old, and that she was very excited because her cousin was going
to come visit her that afternoon. Before we knew it, a half an hour had
gone by, and her cousin, Berto arrived. I met him, and then let them be,
and went back to the other kids. A few weeks passed, and I hadn’t seen
Rosie. I only go two or maybe three days a week to the hospital, but I
usually see some of the same children when they come in for treatments and
tests. Then, one day, I was getting a puzzle for another boy out of the
cabinet that Fundacion Por Una Vida set up in the hospital, and I saw
Rosie in one of the other rooms. We were both happy to see each other, and
I went into her room to talk to her. Before I could ask her how she was
doing, she said that she was ready for that puzzle now, and laughed. Her
arms were free of IV’s, and she was sitting up in her bed, very pleased
with herself. She called to me as I was leaving the room to get it, and
said to make sure it wasn’t an easy baby puzzle, because she wanted a
challenge.
-Emily Schmierer