After my mother gave birth, I was expecting the cliché image I’ve seen on television where a healthy baby is held lovingly by its mother or father while family members surround the bed. However, illustrations of life on TV aren’t duplicated in reality. I came to the realization that everything that day wasn’t going to be picture perfect.
Matthew and I were at a family friend’s while my dad was with my mother at the hospital. When my dad came to pick us up, I was thinking that we’d go straight to the hospital to see mom and the baby, but we didn’t. I sensed a great deal of worry from my father, which I couldn’t understand because I assumed the arrival of a baby would stir up enthusiasm.
Two days later, when I finally faced the tiny baby with several tubes connected to his body inside the incubator, I knew exactly why my father felt uneasy. At that moment, my heart dropped because I grasped the fact that my baby brother, Drew, who was a few days old, was fighting for his life. My mother was in tears when she reunited with Drew for the first time since giving birth. There was anxiety and pain laced with fear that I could feel within my family as we watched Drew grow in the incubator for two months.
Drew was born three months premature. I was told that he was not even a pound when he was born. There are a lot of risks with premature infants, with short- and long-term complications. This left us constantly on the edge of our seats.
The one thing that gave my family hope was our faith in God. We believed that through prayers and blessings, our family — including Drew — would grow together healthily without any difficulties.
Every year around Thanksgiving, we are reminded why we are grateful. As families gathered around the dinner table, passing the turkey around, I hope they experienced an abundance of love from family members. In my family, eight-year-old Drew sits at the edge of the table, happily, eating his meal, and represents how thankful we are for God’s love. Now healthy and blessed without serious health complications, Drew was truly in the presence of God because he was given the strength to fight his way out of that incubator to come home just in time for Christmas.
(Oro, 17, is a Grade 12 student at St. Joseph’s College School in Toronto.)