My son, Eagan Patrick, is a very sweet, loving little boy with a quiet, shy personality.  It's just too bad that most people can't see beyond his visual disabilities; they are missing out on a potential friend.

My son could see perfectly fine up to the time he was three years old.  When he was three, his older brother accidentally shot a b.b. gun; the b.b. pellet went right into Eagan's eye.  He ended up losing that eye; as a result, he only has one eye.

For a joke, the neighborhood kids have taken to calling him "Popeye".  You know, that cartoon sailor who eats his spinach and flexes his bulbous arm muscles and says, "I yam what I yam, and dat's all that I yam:  I'm Popeye, da sailor man!"

Maybe they don't mean it in a harsh way; however, Eagan and I don't see it that way.  Every time we hear the neighborhood kids singing that Popeye song to him, we're both hurt.  Maybe it's because we're both so sensitive; we're both alike in personality and temperament.

Eagan is now seven; it's been four years since that horrible day, but the pain isn't any less.  Some days he comes home from school in tears, asking me, "Mama?  Why do the kids tease me?"  It's enough to break my heart because there's really nothing I can do to ease his pain.  Or mine.

I have been trying my best to talk to the principal of the elementary school he attends, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good.  The kids still pick on my son just as much as they did; the teasing hasn't stopped any.  If anything, the teasing has only gotten worse, much to my (our) dismay.  It is getting to the point to where I am seriously starting to consider taking him out of public school and start homeschooling him myself.

Eagan is really a beautiful boy with his wavy, thick strawberry-blonde hair, big blue eye(s), small, pert nose, and dimples in his cheeks; however, kids can see the scars covering the area around his eye, and this is why they tease him so badly.  If there was any way I could ease my child's pain, believe me, I'd do it in a nanosecond!

Well, I have to go.  It's about time to pick up Eagan from his school; the shool nurse called to say that Eagan has been throwing up all morning.  Great.  Just what I didn't want to deal with:  a sick child!  I just hope it's nothing serious, and I also hope that it's not due to another teasing session from the other kids!

I will write in here again; until then, this is Jackie Prentice saying so long!  I will be writing more about Eagan, myself, and my family; you will be hearing from me again soon!  Take care and God bless; pray that the other kids stop teasing my son and learn to accept him!  It would make both of our lives so much easier!

Thank you in advance!

~Sincerely, Jackie in Tampa Bay, Florida.  :(

*To be continued.*