Alicia's Story
On October 28th 1981 I was 2 years old.
I was In a fire that day. From what I have been told by my parents, I got out
of my crib in the middle of the night. My father had left the electric heater on
that night and when I got out of my crib I somehow knocked the heater over,
starting a fire. I have no memory of the fire but again from what I have been
told my parents my brother woke up and got me out of the fire and wrapped me in
a blanket then wrapped himself in one. My mother and father had woken up also.
My mother broke a window to get us out of the house. I was not breathing once we
were outside the house. The fire department and ambulance was called and a truck
driver had stopped and helped my mother perform CPR on me and had me breathing
again. I was then Life Flight to Children’s Hospital. My arms, legs and chest
had second and third degree burns. They did skin graphs from my legs onto my
arms and chest. I was in Children’s Hospital for five weeks and once out I had
to wear a full ace bandage body suit for nine months having to have it resized
every three months.
School was the hardest part of having
burns. I am still amazed at how cruel children can sometimes be to each other. I
always felt like an outcast, it was very hard for me to make friends. The kids
in the many schools I went to as a child would call me names like burnt toast,
Freddy cougars wife, torch and my brother liked calling me crispy critter. I
took those names to heart and was always extremely hurt by those names. I
became very self conscious and had very low self esteem thru elementary school
into middle school. Then my parents took me to Shiners clinic, where we
discussed doing surgery to remove my burns. We also tried some special make up
on my arms to try and help hide my burns. While I was at the Shiners clinic I
saw a lot of kids who had been burnt badly also. I was very surprised, I had
always thought I was alone and that nobody knew how I felt. The thing that
struck me the most was that I was in a way luckier then some of the other
children there. I,to this day, at the age of 34, can not remember anything from
the fire but I realized that day at Shiners that most of those kids could still
remember what happened to them and it made me very sad. Visiting the Shiners
Clinic and seeing all the other kids who were like me changed how I felt about
my burns. I became less self conscious about them. I accepted the fact that I
had scars that would never go away and were a part of my story in life.
Once I was in High school the name
calling by my peers had stopped. I still had low self esteem but it had little
to nothing to do with my burns. I had stopped trying to hide my burns with my
clothes and started to be more comfortable about them. I would wear tank tops
and my bathing suit without a t-shirt to cover my self. In a way I didn’t notice
them as much and neither did my peers. Some people would still stare when I went
out in public and yes sometime it would bother me but I gradually got over even
that. It was nice when a curious person would actually ask me about my burns. I
appreciated it when people would ask it was so much better then staring and
pointing. I would always thank them for asking. Now as an adult I hardly notice
my burns and most of the people I know or encounter in life do not notice
either.
My burns are a part of me, they do not
define me but they are mine forever and they can be a pretty good conversational
topic and sometimes even educational.
Written By: Alicia A. Ziglar
2 Corinthians 4:8-10
New Living Translation (NLT)
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
Oh Lord, I am thankful of true life stories that we can see reflections of ourselves. Bless Alicia as she shares her story of not being destroyed by life but instead treasures the reminder of how her life was saved.Thank You for letting her see herself through Your eyes. Lord I lift the readers of this, that they see that no matter what life has scarred them with, Lord, that they have life with You.Thank You, Father, for walking with us through the fires. Keep our vision on the good that You bring out our troubles making us stronger and giving us a TESTimony, giving us faith in the outcomes of all trials. Help us Lord to be... and to see... the beautiful reflection of You. In Jesus Name, Amen
Beautiful story. Wonderful courage. Keep that light shining, Alicia!
ReplyDelete