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A father who transformed his tragedy into self-discovery and gratitude

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well shilpa was a special child for me and she was born in 1984 while we were in kuwait and she was a happy and very normal child born and at the age of 15 months he contracted some fever which resulted ultimately to be known as diagnosed later on as a meningitis that resulted some kind of convergence to her brain and which made some damages to the cell ultimately after 60 days of hospitalization and a lot of treatment whatever the doctors could go she came back with a lot of things missing like she cannot speak she's not able to see things properly focus her eyes were nothing apparently okay her face everything looks normal and obviously she lost her neck control and motor function you call it in the brain where the you have involuntary movement that was a depressing moment no doubt but it takes time for anyone to take it so with the grace of god and little belief in that we felt and at least i felt that it is a challenge for me to bring up a child like this and everyone really does parenting and you know you raise your children it's pretty normal but taking care of somewhere child who needs a special needs that was a challenge and we could really face it properly i've been like a math student and i've always loved to do the complex problems first so i treated this as a challenge as a complex so how do i solve it so that required constant change in our lifestyle obviously cut down all social your weightings and concentrate making sure shilpa gets timely fed and timely bath all her routines and even physiotherapy twice a day initially were going uh twice a week to the hospital for refugee therapy but then ultimately it got down it was more difficult in the sense because in kuwait we had no family we just our own family with my other daughter who was four years old that time and my wife so we had to you know manage within that and we could arrange financially we were strong so we could arrange a maid to work at home to give our helping hand to sushma and look up also time to time so time passed that's how it went 13 months and luckily we would manage that shilpa nil never had to er you know a contraction of any body limbs so her hands and legs everything was like a normal child only thing is she's just required the special and special schools we've been going uh less of learning there but at least her awareness was very quiet and her appearance made a big difference in the whole house everybody is centered around her so that was good experience unfortunately we lost her at 13 plus years of age shilpa she suddenly had a one night slept and turned her face down to the pillow and she could not turn back although the maid was sleeping next to the same room so she had suffocation and that made her the collapse so that was a big sad moment at least for me to remember actually shilpa brought a lot of good fortune to me and i got such a big raise in my jobs changing job was so easy i was just selected picked up by a big french company and they just doubled myself income level and all the things so i don't know how it was happening but it was all happening they were very nice people they supported me i managed of course their work very well i set up the whole company i.t systems but it was just because i know i can very clearly see that it's all happened because of shilpa and shilpa is gone i wouldn't say i've gone back but i don't see any more things happening with my fortune just like sitting down and i'm getting some loads of money or something like that it made me to go and meet a lot of very very influential people because of shilpa i met so many nice people around so it's it's really blessing in bones that's what you call it right it's something like that and i i feel everyone uh i mean whoever everybody life you get somewhere other issue but people get really disheartened and depressed and or they give up the child to some orphanage and leave it there but that's not really nice thing i could never think of that happening for you know a child like this i would love to even have get an opportunity i'll say raise another child like that and bring some hopes yeah that's that's a beautiful statement right coming from right from your heart like you know you're willing to even take care of another child very brave yeah it is a service to god you see service to a child like that is a service to god yes beautifully so uh your message to society in general how if they come across people with disability or similar situation who has faced meningitis society what attitude should society have and you said family should you know keep do the service of that child not be abundant and for society and anybody who is going through what's your message well message is simple never lose hopes and heart and it's you know there are certain children they at for different reasons get some disabilities time to time it happens to these children quite often some get by birth sometimes some people have it because of some disease or problem uh but it's a most main important thing for as a parent i think is not to sympathize not to have a sympathy for a child like that it's rather to concentrate and try to bring up their child as a normal child never simply if you sympathize that the child also feel it so it's more important you look at towards them with their special needs and attend to those special needs that's it the child with the special needs that's all it's a child like any other and that's my message and i would say keep a hope and take it as a challenge and and work towards the challenge you will definitely people who do this kind of service they get rewarded one way other people don't know how the rewards come so they should not think about a problem only it's a really a reward

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A storyteller on the Rcoz.us platform, the father of a daughter with special needs speaks about his experiences as a father, husband and employee and gives recommendations to others who are also touched by someone with special needs. This story is a true example of how a suffering can bring positive aspects like gratitude and self-discovery in a person's life. His daughter Shilpa had a high fever at the age of 15 months which was later diagnosed as meningitis. This resulted in brain damage. After a couple months of treatment she came back with many things missing. She could not speak. She could not see clearly. She lost neck control. She was experiencing involuntary movement. His daughter had special needs and the family took care of her while knowing her disabilities. The family made it a point to keep a schedule of Shilpa’s daily activities. Unfortunately she died a little more than 13 years of age due to suffocation by the pillow that she was using. The father feels his daughter brought him luck and shows gratitude. He believes It was because of her he met many influential people. He increased his network considerably. He calls it a blessing. It was challenging raising his daughter but if he had another opportunity to raise a similar special needs child he would jump at the opportunity. He calls it his service to God. What an inspiring story of love and resilience that brought a family closer to God. I find it rare for someone to welcome another special needs child into their life after having gone through the sorrow of having one pass. I imagine there are many families that can relate to this story and will follow the father’s recommendation of not behaving like you sympathize with your child, just raise them as a normal child. Take it like a challenge and you will find you are handsomely rewarded. So much good comes out of sharing this story. It is not often that people are willing to share stories that are personal. There is an element of caring when such stories are shared because knowing there are people out there that are going through or have gone through a situation find it a blessing locating and communicating with people with similarities.  
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