Double miracle is an encapsulated biography of a courageous little girl's survival against the odds.

The first miracle was the birth of my second baby girl on Thanksgiving day in 1974. My first daughter came along with a twin brother. She was the first girl born in generations in her father’s family. She already had two older brothers. So, when Robin came along, it was a complete surprise. We didn’t even have a girl’s name picked out because we were so certain it would be another boy.

She was a perfectly healthy baby and met her milestones of sitting, crawling, walking and talking within expected timeframes. She was three when her dad was outside playing with her in the backyard. He came in and asked if I noticed that she had a slight limp. I had, but mentioned that she had tried to climb the fence and fell. She never cried and I hadn’t been concerned. We questioned her and she said she felt no pain in her leg or foot. Several days later, the limp became more pronounced so I set up an appointment with an orthopedist. After a lengthy exam, that included x-rays, he diagnosed her as having cerebral palsy. It was the wrong diagnosis. I won’t go into the lengthy details, but at the age of five, and only five months after her father’s untimely death, she was properly diagnosed with a malignant brain stem tumor. I was told that if she were lucky she would live another eighteen months. This was before MRI, so they opened her head to see if the tumor was next to or in the brain stem. She was set up for radiation therapy which led to implanting a VP shunt in her head that drained excess fluid down to her stomach. The radiation stopped the growth and she made it to the age of twelve before it recurred. She developed seizures and hearing loss. This time, she was put on chemotherapy that required IVs and hospitalization every four weeks for the next year and a half.

The second miracle is my daughter is now twenty-six-years-old and has had no recurrence. Oh, she has weakness on her left side and wears a hearing aid. I firmly believe that she is a living miracle and I thank God, all the researchers, the doctors and nurses that helped that miracle along.

To Robin: My Double Miracle

Cheerful smiles
Courage great
Enduring pain
To beat the fate
Countless needles
In the veins
Living life
In spite of strains
From chemo
Feeling gravely ill
Never balking
Climbed the hill
Endurance rules
Growing strong
The stage is set
For Robin’s song