A car accident set the course of Cecilia Henry’s life when she was just six years old. The girl nearly died from a traumatic brain injury, and doctors told Cecilia’s mother that she would never again walk or talk. When it was time to discharge her from the hospital, the neurosurgeon announced that he had arranged to send her to live at a home for profoundly disabled children.
Her mother refused.
Cecilia eventually recovered her speech, and began to walk again.
“God just brought her out of it,” said her mother, Dianne. Cecilia, she says, is “an angel” and a miracle.
Whether or not you believe in angels, to be in Cecilia’s presence today is to be with someone on whom the noise and conflict of everyday life is meaningless. And for me, that is miracle enough.
This story is part of our series “Story of My Life,” featuring six residents of Group Homes of Forsyth. The series is meant to explore Henri Nouwen’s assertion that our hearts, not our minds, make us human.