Butterflies - just a nice story

January 30, 2003

Tonight I was watching the show, " It's a Miracle " on Pax while I did

Emma's therapy. They had a little segment on this young boy who died at

the age of 13. I missed the beginning but he was in a wheelchair and

seemed to have a prolonged illness. My guess based upon his appearance

was Muscular Dystrophy but I am really not sure what he suffered from.

His mother spoke about the fact that when his classmates visited the last

time before he died that they discussed when they would see him again and

she thought to herself that it might be their last visit. He died

shortly after that visit. His classmates were having a hard time dealing

with his death and as a result their teacher decided to try and distract

them with a new project. She decided upon a monarch caterpillar. All of

the kids were fascinated by it and the teacher quickly developed other

activities around the study, care, etc of the caterpillar and obtained

more caterpillars. As part of their research they discovered an old

Aztec belief that the wings of monarch butterflies carry the souls of

those who have left this world.

The kids at this point decided to grow a butterfly garden to accommodate

their butterflies and dedicate it to their classmate who had died. This

eventually turned into a butterfly house as well. At the dedication of

the butterfly house, the mother of the young boy who died attended and

they released the butterflies which the caterpillars had matured into.

All of the butterflies took off but one. This single butterfly flew over

to the mother of the young boy who died and landed on the back of her

head in her hair. She got up, gave a speech to thank the teacher and

give her a plaque in recognition for what she had done and hugged the

teacher. The butterfly sat in her hair, the entire time.

I was crying my eyes out. Heck, I was crying my eyes out when they

showed the kids after the young boy died and were discussing their

feelings about his death. I found it particularly poignant since I refer

to my girls as my butterfly girls. When my oldest was little, I made up

a little song that I used to sing to her about being a butterfly girl and

now I sing it to Emma as well, especially when she is fussy during

therapy. Anyway, I thought it was an neat story.

- mom to the butterfly girls Emma 2 1/2 years w/cf and Isabelle 4

years wo/cf

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January 31, 2003

In a message dated 1/30/2003 9:21:12 PM Central Standard Time,

maria_law@... writes:

>

> Tonight I was watching the show, " It's a Miracle " on Pax while I did

> Emma's therapy. They had a little segment on this young boy who died at

> the age of 13. I missed the beginning but he was in a wheelchair and

> seemed to have a prolonged illness. My guess based upon his appearance

> was Muscular Dystrophy but I am really not sure what he suffered from.

> His mother spoke about the fact that when his classmates visited the last

> time before he died that they discussed when they would see him again and

> she thought to herself that it might be their last visit. He died

> shortly after that visit. His classmates were having a hard time dealing

> with his death and as a result their teacher decided to try and distract

> them with a new project. She decided upon a monarch caterpillar. All of

> the kids were fascinated by it and the teacher quickly developed other

> activities around the study, care, etc of the caterpillar and obtained

> more caterpillars. As part of their research they discovered an old

> Aztec belief that the wings of monarch butterflies carry the souls of

> those who have left this world.

>

> The kids at this point decided to grow a butterfly garden to accommodate

> their butterflies and dedicate it to their classmate who had died. This

> eventually turned into a butterfly house as well. At the dedication of

> the butterfly house, the mother of the young boy who died attended and

> they released the butterflies which the caterpillars had matured into.

> All of the butterflies took off but one. This single butterfly flew over

> to the mother of the young boy who died and landed on the back of her

> head in her hair. She got up, gave a speech to thank the teacher and

> give her a plaque in recognition for what she had done and hugged the

> teacher. The butterfly sat in her hair, the entire time.

>

> I was crying my eyes out. Heck, I was crying my eyes out when they

> showed the kids after the young boy died and were discussing their

> feelings about his death. I found it particularly poignant since I refer

> to my girls as my butterfly girls. When my oldest was little, I made up

> a little song that I used to sing to her about being a butterfly girl and

> now I sing it to Emma as well, especially when she is fussy during

> therapy. Anyway, I thought it was an neat story.

>

> - mom to the butterfly girls Emma 2 1/2 years w/cf and Isabelle 4

> years wo/cf

this is a neat story. It reminds me of the article in the calendar that

my girls are in. The writer asked me how I explain to my girls about them

having CF and I told her one day came home from school talking about

the project that they had been doing at school they also had cocoons that

developed into butterflies. \But some of them had broken wings and as she was

telling me this I said you know everything in live has something to deal with

just like this butterfly has a broken wing and you have CF to deal with. You

just do what you have to do and deal with it and do everything you can to

help make things better. I really think it help her understand that it's OK

that she has CF at least she can walk and use her arms, and play with her

friends. I think it made her realize that she really is lucky that this is

the only thing she does have to deal with. Deb A

January 31, 2003

OH, MARIA, that was so very beautiful . I don't get to watch allot of TV, so

I truly enjoy when you all tell these wonderful shows that can help folks ,

even though they don't know that. It is a release for us as these sad times

do come to each of us .Not just death , but any unhappiness, it gives us

hope & calm. Again, thanks for sharing the show...love those butterfly gals

of yours as you do.........

LOVE & HUGS, GrandmomBEV