Ave Maria in the Physical Therapy Room

She sang out Ave Maria as her head rolled around without motor control, sitting between two physical therapists on a mat while trying support herself sitting up, smiling incessantly. This nine-year old girl, Kavine, born prematurely with what is thought to be cerebral palsy and a variety of different congenital diseases, had no control over her body movements until one month ago. Kavine of course cannot walk and her grandmother carries the tall, long-limbed young girl everywhere.  As Kavine sat on the mat with the Congolese physical therapists being trained by two American physical therapists, her grandmother look dotingly on and said, “ Sing Ave Maria for them my dear.”

As she sung the broken notes, the whole room was in tears and amazed at this young prodigy. Her melody cut through everyone and left the room breathless. She paused a second and Kavine’s grandmother told me, “One month ago Kavine could not even sit, but now she is sitting and trying to moving her arms and legs with control. I am doing the exercises they taught me here with Kavine everday.”

I glanced back at Kavine’s smile and the lovely dress that her grandmother dresses her in so to look her best for the doctors each time she comes for an appointment. I turned to her grandma and asked how long she had cared for Kavine. Her parents died around her birth and ever since then her grandma had carried Kavine in addition to caring for her other grandchildren. She traveled more than 400km to bring Kavine to HEAL Africa in Goma where she is being treated and is hoping to get walking braces.

“ You know, we learned that she is just a child like every other child. I cannot throw her to the street and let her beg. There is just as much God in her as there is in every other child. I make sure that she can be as educated as possible and I make sure that when the other kids get new clothes, she gets new clothes first. And I have to make sure that she has every opportunity to heal.”

“But what kills me the most is when I hear Kavine praying at night and calling out, ‘Jesus come quickly, come heal me, I want to walk, please come quick.’ And I just stand outside the door and cry.”

Kavine’s ‘Ave Maria’ interrupts her grandmother’s train of thought and she stares at the beautiful girl sitting on the mat, smiling, her head waving left and right, hearing music we cannot hear.

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