My Son, Mikhail
Rouzana and Mikhail, Ijevan, Tavoush Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / UNICEF Armenia
When Mikhail Simonyan’s mother noticed that her son was finding it difficult to walk, she at first thought nothing at it. Instead, she wondered if her three-year-old had fallen and hurt himself. However, when Rouzana eventually took her son to a traumatologist, the news devastated the toddler’s mother. Mikhail had contracted measles and the infection had spread to his inner ear. Later, it spread to the muscles that kept his spinal cord straight.
“I fell ill for seven months,” she remembers. “I had a nervous breakdown. Gradually I recovered, but it wasn’t until I approached various NGOs and public organizations that I began to come to terms with Mikhail’s condition. I met many children who were able to live with their disabilities, some of whom were in a worse situation than my son. This somehow filled me with hope that there was a way for Mikhail to live with his disability as well.”
“I gave this hope to my child and told him there would be a day when he would be able to walk normally,” she continues. “Together, we’re still living with this hope.”
The full article can be read online here. There’s also another article on Bridge of Hope here.
