Sean Marie A. Cichon

Sean Marie A. Cichon
by
Melchor F. Cichon


Sean Marie was one year and two months then.

Now that she could ran, she would go to all sides of the room. And when nobody would watch her, she would go to the bathroom and play with water in the tub, which is dangerous. She might get drawn there.

She was the center of attention in our family.

When she was not sleeping, almost every member of the family was helping hand in hand to watch her, or play with her.

Otherwise, everything that she would touch would be thrown away or would no longer be in its original position.

Then one day, her mother and her grandmother went to Leganes, Iloilo to buy clothes in the Ukay-Ukay. These are relief clothes which are sold in a very, very low prices. One pair of short pants could cost only fifteen to twenty pesos. Or a blouse could cost 15 pesos.

And they are all imported.

While her mother was away, I watched and played with her. She had this Rabbit toy with holes at its sides with different shapes. She would then drop the different cuts in their respective holes.

When her interest had passed away, she stood up and carried her toys toward her father.

But then she suddenly stopped. We did not know why. She then walked limping on her right foot.

Noticing her predicament, her father came near her and checked the right palm of her foot.

No wound.

He carried her to the second floor of our house and allowed her to walk, as she used to.

But it did not take one minute and she called her mama.

Her father carried her to their bed and gave her milk. She drank it without any problem.

Then they came down.

Sean walked towards me, but she was limping. I came to her and carried her in my arms.

We sat in our sofa. I examined her right legs. I could not find any dislocation on her bone. I massaged it as I have learned a little of reflexology. I could not feel any protruding bone.

And she did not cry.

I told my son to prepare a hot tower for a hot compress. Then we applied to her right foot. We did it twice.

After ten minutes, we allowed her to walk. She did. But for a few steps only. Then she would sit down.

I got worried. I just stayed calm.

When Sean's mother and grandmother arrived, Sean's father, my son, informed them of Sean's condition. They got worried.

I wanted to tell them what happened but I could not say clearly because I was in tears.

And I noticed a little swell on her right foot.

I remember when I was a small boy. When I had sprain my mother would get fresh leaves of kasla, a native plant which is now being cultivated as a source of oil for cars, then heated it on fire and applied it on the affected area. With that knowledge, I got some leaves from our neighbor and applied them to the affected foot of Sean after heating them in the fire to the affected foot. We bandaged that leaves for about one hour, and removed them because Sean was crying as she could not get them out.

After a few minutes, we allowed her to walk.

And a miracle happened: she could walk. In fact, she ran without complaining anything.