Mike Parker: Grandpa wishes miracle child Happy 28th Birthday
On Wednesday of this week, Caitlyn Faith Dixon, my first granddaughter, would have turned 28. Just before Caitlyn turned 14 months old, the Osteogenesis Imperfecta that afflicted her little body claimed her life.
I found a column that I wrote in 1998 celebrating her first birthday. I want to share just a little of what I wrote in October 1998:
“Happy Birthday, my darling little Caitlyn.
“You are a true miracle – a wiggling, cooing, babbling testimony to the love of God and the power of prayer. Last year when you were born, doctors pronounced a death sentence on you. They said you would live only two weeks to two months. Grandma and I asked people here in Lenoir County to join us in prayer for you. Great-Uncle John in Florida did the same, as did your daddy’s family in Pitt County. Great-Grandma and Great-Granddaddy Parker and Mama and Daddy enlisted the support of folks across this country.
“We did our best to raise a Prayer Army for you. Tens of thousands of people have made you the subject of special prayer. You wouldn’t believe how many people right here in Kinston and Lenoir County still stop me to ask how you are doing and assure me that they are still praying.
“Now here you are, a whole year later – still kicking, still cooing, still drooling.
“And here we are, still praying, still believing, still clinging to God’s promises.”
I also wrote for her first birthday:
“What a joy it is just to hold you in my arms, to look into your eyes, to feel your warmth against me, to hear you babble in your foreign baby language. Before long you will make that leap of mind that connects certain sounds to specific objects. ‘Da-da’ will turn into a dictionary of words that will allow us to speak together with mutual understanding.”
Less than two months after I wrote those words, Caitlyn passed away. The Type 2 OI that afflicted her kept her bones from growing, and she went into respiratory failure when her lungs and heart eventually outgrew her rib cage.
I have remembered Caitlyn on her birthday each year since then. In fact, hardly a day passes when I do not remember the little girl who came into our lives and blessed us so much. She was the first to make me a grandfather.
When my dad passed away two years after Caitlyn, I took comfort in knowing that when Dad arrived in Heaven, Caitlyn was there to greet him. Dad used to sing to Caitlyn. I like to think they are singing together with Grandad and Granny. I can hear them harmonizing on “I Don’t Know About Tomorrow” and “That Will Be a Glad Reunion Day.”
Each year that passes, I experience a pang of sadness and a renewal of hope that one day we will all be reunited in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Maybe we can sing together: “Oh, Love That Will Not Let Me Go.”
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at marker16@gmail.com.
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