Guest Post – To My Daughter….

Special thanks to my childhood (and beyond!) friend Christine for sharing this special guest post about her daughter Kaylyn. Please take a read and leave a comment for her below, if you would like to contact her personally, her contact info is listed.

To My Daughter – Kaylyn

My hero is my daughter Kaylyn, a second year Pathfinder.  She is an inspiration not only to me but to many others, enduring what no child should.  She has taught me what inner strength is all about.

As a baby, Kaylyn had suffered many bladder infections.  While trying to diagnosis why my baby had so many fevers, I swore I would be her rock.  Little did I realize, she would return the favour tenfold.

When Kaylyn was young, we moved and she got a new pediatrician.  He asked if we wanted to investigate what was going on; finally, a doctor that understood our frustration.  But this was the question that had a bittersweet answer.  Kaylyn was diagnosed with VUR and kidney disease.  This was the longest year of our lives.  During many of the tests, I held her hand and sang songs as she endured whatever was needed to be done.  For every tear she shed, she held my hand tighter.  A mother’s worst nightmare: holding your child’s hand helplessly, yet hopeful.  Many other children were there looking on, watching her as she was being tested, cringing with every needle for her.  But, Kaylyn being her unshakeable self, thanked the nurses, wiped away her tears and walked out of every test with her head held high.  She knew the reality and accepted it.  Whether she liked it or not, she knew they needed to be done so the doctors could help her.

December 2002, Kay spent her birthday in the hospital having a kidney removed and undergoing some other needed repairs.  This is when she showed me her true strength, also what love and inner strength can overcome.  When she went in for her surgery, I had wrapped a worm sticker around her finger.  Stickers had become her badges.  Every time she had tests done, she would get stickers from the nurses too.  On this day, I had given her one for her to know that even though I couldn’t go in, I was there.  It broke my heart to watch her go down the hallway without her little hand in mine.  Awaking from surgery, we went right to her side.  I had seen her little hand bobbing up and down.  As I reached out to her, she put the little sticker I had given her into the palm of my hand.  She said “Mommy, I don’t need this anymore!” oh, I did though!

We continued with tests to make sure things were going well with her remaining kidney.  We thought that our biggest obstacle was done.  More in depth blood work revealed she was born with Turner’s syndrome, a genetic disease that would again change our lives.  This came as a great shock to all of us.  And as Kaylyn sought comfort, I inquired with the new doctor where this was going to take us now.  New test, but for us it was a resolution, it was the umbrella to all the little ailments Kaylyn had been suffering for many years.

Now, my little girl has been taught how to self administer her medicine via needles.  She faithfully takes her medicine every night without a complaint in the world.  When most people would be shaking their heads asking “Why me?” – Kaylyn gets up every morning with a smile.  She is an extremely responsible girl, and has strength that I don’t think she even knows she has.  Together, we have shared a journey much like the poem footprints.  Together, we continue to be each other’s rocks.  My baby girl is my greatest hero.

By Christine Broadfoot
cbroadfoot76 at gmail dot com

Article reprinted from –

Broadfoot, C (2010). Our Courageous Heroes: To My Daughter. In B. Spilchuk, S. Freeman, &

S. Marusich (Eds.) You’re My Hero, Inspiring Stories by Members of Girl Guides of Canada (pp286-287). Burlington, ON, Canada:YMH MEDIA CORPORATION.

Christine has two girls. She lives in Niagara Falls with her man. She currently works at the Casino, but is attending George Brown College for ASL/ English Interpreter. She grew up in a small town outside London, Ontario. Her serenity is obtained by resting at the cottage near Harcourt. (In her spare time lol)