A Doll for Mona

On my first visit to treat the beautiful child Mona, six years of age, her mother took me aside and confided to me: "My daughter is very shy, and lets no one touch her, especially if she does not know him." Then she entreated me, saying: "My child is blind... and she may prove harder for you than the other children of her age..."

Mona looked like a little angel, with her wavy golden hair, her soft innocent features, and the long lashes framing two blue eyes... two eyes utterly useless, for cruel nature had given no life to those eyes.

I do not know what helped me win this child's friendship on that very day, or by what means I got her to talk with me; but by the time I asked her to let me examine her throat, which was inflamed, we had become fast friends, and all her shyness was gone.

How I delighted afterward in my daily visit to her; often I sat by her bed telling her stories, lending her my eyes to see this world of ours through them. And she, in her turn, would lead me toward her own world... a strange, dark world, empty of friendly faces and of nature's beauty. It was as though God had granted her, as He grants everyone stricken with an affliction, an endurance and a resolve that stood as compensation for her suffering... And I felt the pain of doctors and their burning grief when they stand with folded hands before hopeless problems that cannot be solved.

Mona's throat healed quickly... but I had come to love her so much that I kept up my visits afterward as far as my time allowed.

One day I saw a beautiful doll in a shop and bought it for her. And when Mona took the doll in her arms, caressing it, I heard her say: It has curly hair just like mine. Hasn't it? And a nose and a mouth like me too? Then her fingers turned suddenly toward the doll's closed eyes, and she hesitated a moment, then frowned, as though weighing a question she had not the strength to utter. Then she pressed the doll to her breast tenderly and murmured: "Mercy, O my God... don't let her be blind too!"

At that moment I thanked God that Mona could not see me, for tears were filling my eyes... the tears of a doctor powerless to help.