Disfigured hands

Our little girl Shirley was very close to her mother. They were best friends and did everything together. As Shirley grew older, she started to notice that her mother always wore gloves. As a toddler and young girl, she never bothered to ask her mother why she wore gloves, even when cooking, bathing her and playing with her. One day, Shirley had gone unnoticed in her parents’ bedroom, and she was shocked to see her mother without gloves, which she quickly tried to hide them. It was enough for Shirley to notice that her mother’s hands were severely disfigured and badly burned. Of course she cried when she saw her deformed hands and asked her mother why are they so badly disfigured. Her mother Debbie started to cry profusely and sobbingly, asked Shirley to sit next to her, and for the first time ever, she held her daughter’s hands in hers, even though she pulled them away at first. But then Debbie told Shirley her touching story. ‘When you were a little baby, 4 months old, we had a sudden big fire in our house. You were sleeping upstairs in your room, and we were all downstairs, and quickly got out of the house. Then I got some coats and other clothing, whatever I could grab, and walked amid flames of fire up the stairs and into your room, as you were screaming in a roomful of smoke. I quickly grabbed you in the coats I had and tried to go down the steps, but it was impossible. So I pushed open a window and told your dad to catch you as I had to throw you down the window, knowing for sure that he would catch you. Then I tried to manage to climb out of the window and slowly grabbed the pipes by the walls and tried to climb down. Obviously they were all terribly hot and I had no other choice than to somehow slide down and a few men with your father were able to see me down safely, but not before seeing my hands all red and scared with the fire and the red-hot pipes I had to hold on to. So as you see little Shirley, my hands are so scarred because I wanted to save you, and you were not hurt at all. But my hands were badly burned and I needed a few months in the Burn Unity of the hospital, until they healed enough for me to start touching objects, and hold you in my arms.’ Little Shirley picked her mother’s hands and started to kiss them as they hugged for a long, long time. What sacrifices mothers do for their children !