Healing Through Perseverance: Margie’s Story
We all have our motivations to push through life. Some people do it for family, others do it in the hope of a brighter future. These same things motivate the patients here at Tebow CURE Children’s Hospital. One inspiring child named Margie and her family are an example of that.
Margie, Evelyn’s fifth and youngest child, was born with a cleft lip and palate. “I gave birth at home, and when I saw my baby had a cleft, I was shocked because none of my other four children had the same condition. Then my husband gently told me that he had a distant relative who also had a cleft,” said Evelyn.
From the moment Margie was born, Evelyn struggled to feed her due to Margie’s lip and palate issues. Evelyn endured many sleepless nights as Margie cried, desperate for more milk. She used various methods, like putting milk on a medicine dropper, until Margie finally learned to drink milk from a feeding bottle. Due to the effect of the cleft, Margie never really got enough food, and she ended up being severely underweight for much of her childhood.
As Margie got older, speech became another challenge. While her family eventually learned to understand her airy speech, others struggled to do so. Because of this, Margie started school later than most children her age. “Margie likes to go to school, even though she would often come home crying because her classmates bullied her,” Evelyn shared. Growing up underweight due to feeding difficulties, as well as struggling to be understood, Margie was an easy target for the local bullies.
