“You’re beautiful,” Aylin’s mother sings to her. “We love you Aylin, the world is so beautiful with you in it.”
Aylin or “Ducky” as we call her, fought for her life from the day she was born, but she doesn’t have much to help her fight. Her mother whispers and sings to her, all six pounds of her. She tells her again and again how beautiful she is, how amazing this world is, how much she loves her. Sima is a fierce mother who sees more than Aylin’s tiny frame, she sees her future.
With a mended heart, Aylin is going to be able to grow into all the dreams her family has for her year after year. All families disagree, and Aylin’s is no different. She is her family’s only baby and the hopes her parents have for her are high.
“She will be a famous musician and play the piano,” her architect father says. That was his dream before his very practical mother said music was too risky, he should be an architect instead. Aylin’s father wants her to be able to follow her heart, even if it leads her to loving music instead of something more practical. Aylin’s mother smiles at her husband’s wild love for his daughter. She has other ideas about her daughter’s future. “A heart surgeon, so she can give life to another little girl the same way you gave it to her,” she says quietly.
Because you decided to go with Novick Cardiac Alliance to Iran, this is what is being fiercley debated. Not whether Aylin will live, or if her parents can find treatment for her. Instead it’s if she will bring music into the world or hope as a cardiac surgeon?
I don’t know which one you would vote for, but now Aylin has a choice because her heart can take her there.