“And it did ruin my whole career,” I could hear Alora say in the background when I spoke with her Grandma Jan on the phone. I couldn’t help but chuckle over the passion Alora eluded over being told she could no longer sit behind the desk in a nursing home.
At least once a year Alora visits the Shriner’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Last year a doctor said, “Afraid braces are coming down the pike for Alora.” Grandma Jan said the doctor repeated the same phrase on her visit a few weeks ago.
Why the braces? “She could never walk the mall. Her legs won’t take her that far, they get too tired. She is doing well in PE at school, though,” Grandma Jan said.
Obviously her lack of mobility hasn’t stopped Doctor Alora. She isn’t whining about her inabilities, she celebrates what she can do: visit the nursing home where her great-grandmother resides. She walks around the tables in the dining hall and hands out miniature candies and hugs. Many of the residents haven’t touched a child in years. Alora is an angel visit in their day.
One of the elderly men at the nursing home stopped by the front desk one day to watch Alora at work. “Enjoy watching her,” he said. “I’m so impressed. She’s so engrossed in her work.”
Someday Alora’s Spina Bifida may result in braces on her legs, but for now, she’s content to give up the mall walking for a nursing home ministry. Her caregivers—mother and grandparents smile at her accomplishments and meet the challenges as her birth defect demands.
