Fairy tale inspired by Elizabeth's life and death

THE WOODCUTTER’S TALE
by Richard W. Avazian

Illustrated by Marianne Greiner

Once upon a time long, long ago in a far-away land lived Patrius, a woodcutter, and his wife Matilda. They had a 19-year-old daughter, Filia and a ten-year-old son Stefan.

It came to pass that the countryside was ravaged by sickness accompanied by high fever that caused many to perish. Stefan was stricken and shortly became very ill. The woodcutter summoned the old midwife, a gray-haired woman who also served as a doctor. “Patrius, Matilda, I am sorry to tell you that Stefan is beyond my help and must soon die.”

Struck speechless by this pronouncement, they heard the neighing and hoof beats of horses outside their cottage. Patrius went out to discover that the Princess in her royal coach had stopped. “I was returning to my castle when I heard your son was sick. Bring me to him.” Patrius led the Princess inside and she beheld the dying Stefan. “Let me take him home with me and I will heal him. However, I will keep him with me as I have no sons after four years of marriage.” Although it broke their hearts, Patrius and Matilda agreed for they knew it was best for Stefan.

The Princess herself picked Stefan up to carry him to the carriage. As soon as the Princess lifted him, Stefan started to look better. The Princess placed him in the coach seat opposite her and the coach drove off, leaving the couple waving goodbye with tear-stained faces.
Life was not the same in the little cottage, although the family seemed closer together then ever before. Their shared grief was an invisible weight pressing upon their shoulders, made bearable only by the sharing.

Three days after Stefan’s departure, a white dove appeared and made a nest in their thatched roof. Strangely, the family felt comforted by the presence of the dove that never left their roof. Patrius always looked for it when he returned from his wood-cutting forays into the forest. Matilda and Filia often looked up when they were doing their outdoor chores to see if the dove was still there and to experience the sense of consolation and protection, which seemed to emanate from the dove.

After a few years, Filia married a cooper and moved to a village about ten miles distant. Though they missed their daughter greatly, the couple now had the dove for company.

Finally, stricken with years, the old couple became weaker and weaker and sensed that they both were going to die. Patrius said, “Let us go outside, bring our bench and sit on it, hold hands and look at our dove.” Matilda agreed and they brought their bench outside. They settled themselves on the bench and faced their cottage, but were surprised to see that the dove was no longer on the roof. Finally growing too feeble to move, they heard the sound of horses’ hooves.

With their last breaths, they beheld the royal coach approaching. As the coach drew near, they saw a smiling Stefan inside, dressed in shining white garments and looking every inch a Prince. “Come home with me,” said Stefan. Overjoyed and amazed that they suddenly no longer felt feeble, the couple stepped into the coach. As the coach started to pull away, Patrius and Matilda looked back to see if their dove had returned. But the dove, no longer being needed, was gone.
This disappointment was replaced by their boundless joy at seeing how happy Stefan had been and by knowing they would be with Stefan forever in their new home.

END NOTE: For several weeks after Elizabeth's death, there was a dove who rested on our front yard and on the telephone lines above.

The story was written by my father and illustrated by her aunt. It is an excerpt from my light-hearted memoir about Elizabeth's life called, "Anything But a Dog! The perfect pet for a girl with congenital CMV (cytomegalovirus)." It raises funds for CMV research if purchased through the National CMV Disease Registry. It is also available through Amazon.com. To read Chapter One of my book, visit my website at http://www.authorlisasaunders.com/

If you would like to download "The Woodcutter's Tale" and pass it along with the illustrations done by Elizabeth's aunt, Marianne Greiner, please feel free to do so by clicking into: Woodcutter with sketches final version.doc (it takes a moment to load up because of the illustrations).

Coping Through Scriptures and Strangers

(Photo caption: Elizabeth at the age of 15 with her big sister Jackie.)

Recently I have been contacted by parents who are sometimes in distress over their child's disabilites or poor health. I didn't put my terribly dark thoughts about raising Elizabeth into my recent book, "Anything But a Dog! The perfect pet for a girl with congenital CMV (cytomegalovirus)" because I wanted to share the fun side of her life. Despite living in the mind and body of a three-month-old (she was also visually and hearing impaired), she did, after all, have a good, happy life, and I in turn, had a rich and rewarding life with her. But since "Anything But a Dog!" has been released, I've been asked some of the tougher questions about I how coped raising such a disabled child.

I found my biggest help from up above. Despite wrestling with God the first year with “Why me?”, I was often comforted by an act of kindness from a stranger (I always attributed God with sending me a stranger) or from a particular Scripture that seemed meant just for me and my particular anguish at the moment. The first several months after Elizabeth's birth and diagnosis, I wallowed in the bitterness and suffering of others, especially in Books of Psalms and Job where I found: “My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart.” Job 17:11

The Scripture that helped me begin my road to recovery from deep depression is "Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). I dwelled on that when I was first frozen in terror over Elizabeth's forcasted bleak future. Although I prayed for a miracle all the time, I began thinking that I needed to concentrate on loving and caring for her at that moment and not dwell on what tomorrow could bring. I found it to be so true when Jesus said, "So don't ever worry about tomorrow. After all, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). It sure does!

Examples of strangers who held out their hands to me or to Elizabeth are the tattooed carnival man and an elderly, overweight black women. One afternoon, struggling with Elizabeth’s wheelchair through the muck of an upstate county fair, I was feeling depressed because children were staring at my tiny ten-year-old girl who could not even hold up her head. “She looks funny,” kids said loudly to their embarrassed parents. In the midst of my dark thoughts, a heavily tattooed carnival man, who looked like he had been drinking for years, ran from behind his game booth and came right up to me. My alarm melted into tears of gratitude when he handed me a large, brown teddy bear from his stash of prizes and said, “I want your little girl to have this.” It didn’t matter to me that Elizabeth did not have the physical skills to play with that fuzzy bear—all that counted was that she mattered to someone. Someone who appeared to know what it was like to live a life some considered at the bottom of the barrell.

Another time, and this is an excerpt from my book, “Anything But a Dog!”, I was in the emergency room because I couldn’t get Elizabeth’s seizures under control. Once she was stabilized, I needed some adult conversation so I reached out to the elderly black lady in the next bed, separated from us only by a white curtain. Drawing the curtain open so she would know I was speaking to her, I asked, “Why are you here?”

“I was eatin’ some Chinese food and I felt a heart attack comin’,” she replied, seemingly happy to strike up a conversation. “My friends called 911. The doctor, he says I’m havin’ a heart attack because I’m so fat, but I say it was somethin’ they put in that Chinese food! Now why is that precious little girl here?”

“Seizures,” I said.

“Why, she’s too pretty to be havin’ them seizures!” She went on to tell me about her handicapped son who also suffered seizures. He had passed away years earlier. “My son—he was a good boy. I sure do miss him.”

He was lucky to have such a jolly soul for his mother. And she was lucky to have him—he probably never told her she was fat!

"Anything But a Dog!" also contains other strangers who came to the rescue (like when Elizabeth and I were trapped on a train during Hurricane Floyd and I ran out of food she could eat), a pet who made a difference in her life, plus information on how to prevent birth defects caused by CMV. To read an excerpt, visit: http://anythingbutadog.blogspot.com/

If "Anything But a Dog!" is purchased through the National CMV Disease Registry, a % goes to CMV research. See: U.S. CMV Registry To purchase "Anything But a Dog!" directly from me, write to saundersbooks@aol.com (I accept PayPal or check and don't charge shipping), or purchase by credit card through Amazon at: From author through Amazon

In my link Disabilites and Scriptures to Cope are excerpts from an earlier book I wrote (now out of print) about Elizabeth called, “Riding the Train with Elizabeth.” That memoir is more about my thought life as I sometimes struggled to cope with raising Elizabeth. It is written from a very different perspective than my current light-hearted book, “Anything But a Dog!”, but if you are in severe distress over the prognosis you just received, people staring at your child, or how to love this child who has turned your world upside down, then I hope you find the same lifeline I did in the Scriptures you'll read at this link: Disabilites and Scriptures to Cope

Please note: OB/GYNs still do not routinely warn women how to prevent contracting the CMV virus, despite the fact that it causes more disabilites than Down syndrome. CMV is often found in the saliva of toddlers so women need to be careful not to kiss them on the mouth or share utencils with them. Perhaps Elizabeth may not have been disabled if I had known the precautions to take. God gave me the strenght to deal with her disabilites, but please tell others the precautions I just mentioned so their unborn children can be spared hearing loss and/or mental and physical impairement. Thanks! Lisa