Terminal disease changes Bala Cynwood mom's perspective
Author Maria Kefalas is compelled by her daughter's illness to contemplate aspects of motherhood she never before imagined.
Terminal disease changes Bala Cynwood mom's perspective
You know you're in trouble, Maria Kefalas said sadly, when you're fast-tracked for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Kefalas, 45, is a St. Joseph's University sociologist whose daughter Calliope, 3, has a rare and untreatable genetic disease, MLD. It's a diagnosis without hope: Most patients don't live beyond age 5.
"Cal has showed me how pain and love and suffering and joy must coexist," Kefalas writes. She adds, "When I see my friends with healthy children, I just savor how beautiful and healthy they are. I hope I . . . never . . . follow up a friend's story about a baby's first step . . . with me recounting what the hospice nurse said this week."
Contact Davis at cdavis@phillynews.com or 610-313-8109.
Contact Parks at 610-313-8117, jparks@philly.com, or https://twitter.com/JS_Parks.
