With practiced care Mary applies lipstick, runs a brush through her hair, smiles at her image in the mirror, and dashes out to the car where her son and husband wait with barely concealed impatience. They are on their way to the base ball game… Another all-American family living the American dream in Orange County.
Well, not quite. There are days when Mary gazes into the mirror and wonders at the confident, youthful, American woman whose eyes speak of the incredible journey that Mary has made.
Mary’s story begins in tribal Madhya Pradesh. Born in 1968, Mary was the youngest of three sisters and two brothers. Her father was a marginal farmer, barely able to eke out a living from the soil, while her mother was already losing the battle that would take her life and turn Mary into a living wreck.
The first recorded reference to Mary places her at the orphanage run by Missionaries of Charity at Delhi. She was eight years old with sever facial disfigurement that had completely eroded her self-confidence as she was growing up. While she made herself useful around the orphanage, did she ever imagine that life could ever have any other dimension or direction? That she too could step beyond the secure confines of the home to build a life of her own?
Over the next decade, Mary was in and out of hospitals. Corrective surgery was necessary to enable her to eat and breathe properly. Slowly she learned to communicate and to cope with her situation.
Around the time that Mary was undergoing corrective surgery for the fourth time, and Naveen*, an eight-year old ward of the orphanage, unable to even sit up was declared ‘untreatable’, Mark was in India from USA for a holiday. His desire to see the ‘real India’ brought him to the home run by Missionaries of Charity for destitute and orphaned children. While Mark was moved by the dedicated and self-less devotion of the nuns belonging to Mother Teresa’s order, what affected him deeply was the plight of these children who were medically challenged.
It was apparent that only concerned, individual intervention could make a worthwhile difference to the lives of these children. Mary was already seventeen – on the threshold of adulthood; and what did she have to look forward to? What about young Naveen?
Back, in the USA, the images continued to haunt Mark. Could anything be done? Could these children be gifted a more meaningful existence?
In his search for viable treatment and options, Mark contacted Interplast, a non-profit organisation founded by Dr Laub, dedicated to bringing the benefits of corrective plastic surgery to those who could not afford it. A renowned plastic surgeon, Dr Laub has brought normalcy to the lives of hundred of people all over the world.
When the Interplast team viewed Mary’s photographs, they were positive that their planned interventions would not only solve the attendant medical problems, but also grant her a more ‘normal’ appearance. This organisation based in California offered to perform a series of six operations free of cost. As the operations would stretch over a year, Mary needed a place to stay. The Smith family was identified as surrogate family for Mary. Harven and Nancy not only had children of their own, they also had adopted children from Asian countries and were willing to take Mary into their home for the duration of her stay.
Slowly but surely, the mills of destiny were turning for Mary. Practically illiterate, unable to communicate in English, virtually penniless, sorely in need of corrective facial surgery – Mary was on her way to a new life.
While the medical expenses and stay had been arranged, where was the money for the ticket to come from? Support was mobilised in the form of donations that swelled to cover a return ticket, clothes, suitcase, tote bag, shoes and attendant paraphernalia so essential for travel. Mary moved into a well-wisher’s home to get the ‘feel’ of living with a family. At seventeen, she had to re-learn everything she had known. Inter- personal relationships, interaction, social skills – a bewildering new world.
While Mary’s skin was being stretched and grafted, nose rebuilt, eye ducts rectified, her mind was undergoing an even more radical change. Bouts of surgery were interspersed with adult literacy classes. Learning to speak English, read it, write it, struggling with the ever-changing dynamics of family life, away from the cloistered retreat of her growing years. Dealing with the homesickness that assailed her from time to time. Discovering the joys of bowling and swimming.
Caught between two worlds, Mary found in herself the courage to crossover. The tenacity and endurance that had seen her through so much and the links she had forged over the years kept her going.
The Smith family’s offer of board and lodging soon evolved into an offer of full-fledged adult adoption. Papers had to be sent from India, affidavits signed, permissions granted. Finally, Mother Teresa’s intervention was sought to open America’s doors for Mary. A decade after her arrival, Mary became an American citizen. In due course, and in true American tradition, she met and married the man of her dreams. And now is a proud mother of bouncing, healthy boy! Today, as she makes her grocery lists, visits malls, drives her son around, does she stop to think what a stranger’s concern set into motion?
Mary’s life is a modern day miracle, a hosanna to the power of one human being’s concern for another.
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