The following story comes from Kim and Smoky, our friends in Coronado, CA. They visited our partners Steven and Grace in Chile over Christmas:

We arrived to the front of a simple home in a barrio in Santiago. There were four children playing outside of it.  When they saw our wheelchair they knew it was for their dad. They smiled and led us toward the door. On the way they introduced themselves. They kept pointing to their sister Ana, a cute, thin seven-year old girl with a shaved head. They wanted us to know that she had cancer.

The children led us inside where their father was lying on a sofa.  He was partially paralyzed. We told him that we had brought him a wheelchair to help him get around. When we asked him if we could lift him into it he said, “Oh no, my wife is the only one that can lift me.”

So, one of the children ran down the street to get his mom at a neighbor’s house.  When she arrived, she squatted down, hoisted her husband up, and bent him with difficulty in order to get him into the chair.  Immediately tears of joy and gratitude started flowing from his eyes. His children were hugging him and telling them how happy they were for him.

We asked him how he became ill.  He replied, “I became sick a year ago when I found out that my daughter has cancer.” His daughter, Ana, is the one giving him a hug.