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Deydri's story
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Deydri's Story Deydri sat poised and pretty as a princess in front of the television set. Her hands were folded in her lap, her ankles crossed. Her serene face spoke of a maturity far beyond her nine years. She sat as an eye in a hurricane surrounded by the childish sound and fury of the other children screaming and playing about her.
Her morning began at 5:00 a.m. when she woke her father, laid out his clothes and made his breakfast, asking if today was the day he would take her the long miles to the hospital to have her deformed palate fixed. Her father said that more so than anything, she is always persistent. "After the first operation four years ago, she would always ask me 'Dad, are we ever going back for the second operation?'" "I would tell her 'no' because they (the doctors) told her that it was a very difficult operation, we don't think we can do this...but then that is what they said the first time." I didn't want to bring her back the second time, because I didn't want to disappoint her."
On a previous visit to the Hospital del Nino, one of the anesthesiologists told Javier and his daughter that the American doctors were coming on a certain date and since that day she has been praying to God to have the opportunity to be here. "My daughter became more alert, happier, playing more and she had a new outlook on life because she had hope." "Deydri did her homework and started doing a lot better in school. She became more attentive, because she wanted to please me so that I would bring her here." "The night before we came here she said to her mother, 'Mom I'm getting up early tomorrow, I'm cooking dad's breakfast, I'm laying out his clothes for him because I'm taking him with me to the hospital.'"
Javier works long hours as an ice cream salesman to support his wife and four children. "It is very difficult work," he said, "but it is all that I have. Work in Tabasco is hard to find. I work long hours because of her–the x-rays and medicines are expensive but I am more than willing to do the extra work." "She influences me. She brightens my day. She is my joy." Last year Deydri had to repeat the third grade because she couldn't talk very well and couldn't repeat the words they needed her to. The teachers told Javier, "We are going to give her a written exam and if she passes the written exam we will pass her on to the fourth grade." On a scale of 1 to 10 she scored 9.9. Javier was virtually abandoned as a child, ran away from his uncle's when he was ten and got involved in drugs and alcohol. "I survived by the grace of God. Some lawyers from the state took me in and helped me out of the problems I had." "Thanks to my wife of 16 years I am at peace, because she loved me. Kept me off drugs. And now I have my four children." Deydri is the second child, the oldest girl, the best behaved. I have a special place in my heart for her, but I love all my children." "My life personal life; it is I am here for my children...as long as you have life, you will always have hope and that is what keeps me going."
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Day
Five
