News : Story of Wong Lee Foong born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy

Excerpt from STAR ONLINE

She loves her like her own

By LOONG MENG YEE
newesdesk@thestar.com.my



KLANG: When Wong Lee Foong was about a year old, her grandmother wished her dead.
“It's better for you to die before I do. If not, who will care for you?” she once asked.
But the grandmother was not being cruel.

Lim: ‘Who can resist her smile and her twinkling eyes?’The family was just too poor and hard-pressed to care for the youngest child, born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy and could neither walk nor talk.



To eke out a living, the grandmother would troop the four grandchildren under her care to the fields to plant lady's fingers in Kundang, Rawang.
While the rest of her siblings played, Lee Foong was left under a tree, attracting flies as she urinated and defecated.



Grandma fed the child with condensed milk, the only kind of baby food she could afford.
And then along came Roxanna Lim, a social worker who took the child as her own.
She was a single working woman then, but she promised to be the best mother to the disabled child.



For the next 20 years, Lim tried to live up to the promise. She quit her job to become a full-time mother and has been living on donations since.
When Lee Foong 's contorted body needed a special medical bed, Lim begged a private rehabilitation school to give her one.



When the special child's eyes were diagnosed with retina detachment, Lim took her to Singapore for a corrective surgery. A couple sponsored the trip and the surgery was a success.
“I want my Lee Foong to continue seeing the beautiful rainbow, her favourite Barney show and her pretty Christmas dress,” said Lim, 53.



The journey through life for the awesome twosome has been peppered with laughter, sorrow, despair and encouragement and, above all, faith, hope and love.
Asked if she regretted taking in Lee Foong, Lim said: “It has not been easy, but I have God on my side.



“Who can resist her smile and her twinkling eyes? My baby may not be like the rest, but she is definitely not a child of a lesser God,” said Lim.





[tags : seic epilepsy seizures children pediatric neurology]