PINK TULIPS
BY Dorothy Gast
In 1999 I planted several packs of tulips bought off a late season sale table. In April 2000 there was some weak tulip plants peeping from the shiny green leaves of periwinkle, but no sign of flowers . The bed was left undisturbed with spikely tulips hiding among the dominant plants.
The early months of 2001 the world was falling apart in our family. My mother found she had inoperable ovarian cancer on Valentine’s Day and died before March 14.
My 17 year old granddaughter attended Mama’s funeral so swollen with the symptoms of preclamsia that she had to be helped up and down. When she was admitted to the hospital she had a long and difficult labor. A caesarean was done late night. Merry’s mother-in-law and I were the only family waiting with the young father.
About midnight while the father was at the nursery looking for his baby daughter, the obstetrician warned mother in law and me, great grandmother of the child, that there was something wrong with the baby. He said the little one had Downs’ Syndrome and would not live very long. She would be limited mentally and physically and might very well experience multiple health problems and the family needed to be prepared.
Despite the late hour we called family member telling them te baby, Stormy, had been born and the prognosis was not good. I emailed friends around the world for prayer. There were hundreds of people raying for her from dozens of prayer groups and churches. Stormy was kept in infant intensive care. For three days, other family members went to admire the beautiful baby, but I continued to cry out to Heaven. One the fourth day, I took a turn scrubbing up and donning protective clothing to see the baby.
There was nothing to suggest that this baby had any defect. Her wide spaced eyes were big and blue and followed movement around her. She was rosy and chubby, but no longer swollen as she and her mother had been at her birth.. I opened the tiny hands and found the lines of a normal baby. I knew that she was going to be fine. Tests were sent off to she if she was Downs’ Syndrome.and three weeks later confirmed my belief that she would be normal. I promised that I would do all I could to help this young couple provide whatever care was needed.
The day we brought her home to my house for me to care for mother and child. We turned into my driveway to see 40 huge pink tulips shining betweeen the glossy periwinkle leaves. The same tulips I had given up on were a beautiful display to welcome Stormy home.
She was walking at a very early age, making sentences by 18 months. It was almost as if so many prayers with her name on them stacked up in the Requests section of HEAVEN that they continue to bring blessings to her. She is confident, friendly, and very affectionate.
