A young girl strives to have a normal life, even with living with a rare and unusual disorder that causes her body to age twice the normal rate. At the age of six, she resembles a tiny elderly woman.
Codi Michelle Guarini is a child whose smile can light up the room. She is quick to laugh, and she is equally quick to smile. She has huge, dark eyes of brown, and she has a killer sense of humor.
Codi loves to jump on the trampoline, and she loves to run around, chasing her friends at school. She also loves to kick the ball during recess, and she can proudly show off her tumbling skills in gym class. She appears in every way to be a normal, happy first-grader (soon to be second-grader), but looks are deceiving. You see, she is dying. She isn't expected to live more than six years at the most--if she is lucky.
Codi is terminally ill with a rare and little known disorder known as progeria, which is a disorder that causes abnormally accelerated aging in a person's body. Nobody knows what causes it, but it is a serious disorder that needs attention and a way to treat it. It causes a child to age faster than normal and to develop problems that the elderly are susceptible to: arthritis, hardening of the arteries, susceptiblity to stroke or heart attack, high blood pressure, osteoperosis, any number of things. She may be only six, but she looks like a wizened old woman in her 70's. She is incredibly tiny, looking no more than the age of two, and she has very little in the way of hair on her head. She walks with a pronounced limp due to arthritis, and she has already had two small strokes that has left one side partially paralyzed. Yet, she remains active, and she isn't about to let her disorder stop her from being a little girl.
When she was born, Codi appeared normal in every way, but she was slow to put on weight, and she didn't grow as fast as most babies. Her doctors became concerned, so they sent her to specialists, who diagnosed the problem, and ever since, her family's life hasn't been the same. They were understandably heartbroken to learn that their little girl was suffering from a terminal illness. Doctors tried to be optimistic, but they told them to treat her as normally as possible, and to let her be a child, and let her enjoy her life.
Ralph and Connie, her parents, were, understandably, devastated. They had never heard of this disease called progeria, and they didn't know anybody who had it. Their other two children, Carson and Cinnamon, were as healthy as could be, and they couldn't figure out how their youngest child developed progeria, and why. Yet, once they got over the initial sadness and shock, they were determined to treat their youngest child as normally as possible, and Codi had grown into a beautiful little girl who just happened to have a disease that was beyond their (and her) control. Sure, she looked more like a little old lady with no hair, but she was still beautiful to them, and the child's happy personality gave them reason to hope and to smile.
Another reason why they were happy for their youngest daughter was because they had gone to a national conferance for progeria patients and their families, and they met other children who had the same disorder as Codi did, and they no longer felt so alone or out of place. Codi managed to make a new friend in Raegan, a little girl from Nashville, Tennessee, and now the two were writing back and forth, exchanging their phone numbers and pictures of themselves at the conferance. They also met doctors who treated progeria patients, and any questions they may have had were answered.
And perhaps, best of all, they recently went to DisneyWorld on an all-expenses-paid vacation for a week, as sponsored by the Sunshine Kids Foundation, and they had the best time. Codi was all excited, and she still continues to talk about meeting her favorite Disney characters and having tea with her two favorites, Cinderella and Belle.
Oh karen there are one child with this "progeria" disorder in school here with my child...(MY BABY....10 years later)......and she is the cutest little darling....always so happy go lucky....you can't believe that she might not live to the same age as her friends...!!!
Enjoyed your read and could see this little angel rUnning around so vividly!!
Donkey-Donk has moved to a new farm, and as much as she tries, she just can't find a job she can do. Includes over 20 adorable photos of Donk trying her best...
Winner of two 2020 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in the Ebooks Category:
Best Illustrations: 2nd Place
Picture Books Ages 6 and Older: Honorable Mention
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