New Eyes

This essay was first published in Prenatal Partners for Life's newsletter:  http://prenatalpartnersforlife.org/ A Beautiful Boy My son Caleb was born with trisomy 13 in March of 2010 and died this May. I could tell you about all his medical problems and the sleepless nights doing his cares. I could tell you about his profound developmental delay and all the things he couldn’t do. I could tell you about how we went from a difficult first year of life, to a few years of good health, and from there to a couple years of declining health, multiple hospital stays and finally his death. However, I would be leaving out the most important part: himself. Caleb was like a song from a secret garden: sweet, serene, with high and low notes, with quiet moments and those when the intensity rose, and yes, a tinge of sadness, of melancholy. Caleb’s life was simple: wake up, get cares, be fed, spend time rolling on the floor, spend time sitting in a wheelchair while piano mus