One day in 1981, I received a call from Father Guillermo Wasson of "Our Little Brothers"; a friend of mine since my childhood, asking to see me. When I met him, he told me that one of his sons, while doing his internship year in the hospital of ISSTE, found a little girl abandoned for one year and a half in the hospital. He wanted the Father to take her to his orphanage called "Our Little Brothers".

The Father told me that the girl was ill and needed a lot of care and attention, but the orphanage couldn't give that to her. The big question was if I could adopt her, because he knew that since my divorce I wanted to adopt a child. I said to him, that I had to think about it because I was working the whole day at Western-Delta Airlines and there wasn't anybody who could take care of the little girl while I was working.

Then, two months later, the Father told me that I had to make a decision about the little girl, because she would be coming to the orphanage and the biological mother would be put in prison for abandoning her. Then one of my brothers told me "everybody has a mission in life, and maybe this is yours".

Immediately I thought that Annie should come home with me. God sent me the most beautiful "mission" of the world!

I received a dolly of two years, weighing 9kg, with second degree malnutrition and developmental delays from severe maternal rejection. And so it was. The first pediatricians that checked her told me that she wouldn't live longer than one year more, then 5 years, but God had another idea for her, because he lent me her for 26 years and eight months.

Annie didn't speak or walk at two years old, but during her first year at home, she learned to walk and to speak, first in English and then in Spanish. Her diet changed from watery soup, juice and milk to enormous shakes of vegetables, potatoes, meat or chicken,  and cream or butter.

She ate a soup dish twice a day and she was always very hungry. She had blisters that stuck her tongue to her palate, so I changed from the bottle to a little cup. During this year we also visited the government offices because her adoption was being processed. Her development during this first year was so incredible that the officials who knew us, noticed her  developmental changes with each passing visit.

She had become a healthy body weight, walked, spoke in two languages and played with the children of the neighbors. A lot of people criticized me because they said that by playing in the garden, her blisters would be infected. But I thought I had to take care of her like a normal child, and in addition, she needed to create antibodies.

If she fell down, we only cleaned her wound and she went to play again. I never make her feel fear or horror when she fell. Everything was easy, like the most normal thing in the world. I'm sure that she considered her EB with this attitude is what made Annie like the person she was; loving the life and getting everything she wanted to do.

The first two years I brought her to all the dermatologists, doctors that make vaccines, folk healers, herbalists. Nobody knew the words "Epidermolysis Bullosa" and how to treat it. (I'm talking about 1981, 82 and 83.) So they prescribed me herbs, vaccines and a lot of "inventions" that of course, didn't work.

I did this until our pediatrician told us to stop visiting these places and that I had to cure her wounds like I was doing. When somebody will find a cure, than it will be okay. He told me that some of the people we were visiting were only using Annie to make her tests and I was spending money that I didn't have and I could really damage her but not cure her.

We went to Standford University where Dr. Eugene Bauer confirmed us that she had recessive dystrophy EB and his team congratulated us for her health despite of her EB. So I confirmed that I was doing well with her and could do it for 25 years more, until the cancer attacked.

During February 2005, Annie started feeling bad and had a painful wound on her spine. First of all, she told me nothing and only mentioned it when it was unbearable. We didn't have money for a private doctor and she was very happy working in Stryker, Mexico, paying her own car (one Fiesta 2002), etc.

She didn't want to go to Social Security, but we had to because the pain was unbearable and she was afraid of the things that were to come. The doctors of Social Security didn't know how to take care of a patient with EB. They said to me: "You know more than us, tell us what we should do!"

The doctor had a copy of the brochure of EB translated by the Dr. Julio Salas, but she used articles that I brought her ten years ago and didn't want to prescribe a biopsy. Three months later, after prescribing us hot oats on the wound, finally she authorized the biopsy and its result was malignant.

Seeing how useful it was to count on Social Insurance, we went to Monterrey, with the assistance of Dr. Salas, to the University Hospital. They decided to submit her to radiation therapy. At the beginning, she was a lot better, but suddenly she got worse. Cancer had already taken over her organs. My daughter fought till the last moment, but God took her on November 6, 2005.

The medical and psychological support we received from Dr. Salas was unbelievable. We would not have been able to bear the kind of lack of efficiency you find in Mexico, had it not been for him.

What Annie was able to achieve at 26 years of age and 8 months is the following:
She finished her elementary and high school at Colegio Guadalupe de Madres Benedictinas Americanas.

She graduated as a teacher of English, at the Angloamerican Institute.
She managed to work as a teacher of English, on a private basis, while getting ready for Open Preparatory. She worked at APAC for several years, then she resigned from this job and went to work at Stryker, as a receptionist and Translator of English.

She bought her own car, a Fiesta 2002. She had nearly paid for her car completely when she had to sell it and quit her job in Stryker, because the pains caused by cancer were unbearable.

Her favorite pastimes were EVERYTHING connected with Disney. Ever since she was 3 we went to Disneyland and Disneyworld once or twice a year, for my work at Western and Delta Airlines. During our second trip to Disneyland, they stopped the parade in front of Annie, and invited her to go with them. She was only four years old, and she was afraid to go without me, but they did make her feel VERY SPECIAL!

The other passion she had was music and dancing.  Her friends and their boyfriends always took her dancing with them. She was an exceptional leader, very popular among her friends.

As she was successful in so many aspects of life, I think that this was due, in the first place, to her taking EB as a disease that did not have to be in her way to getting what she wanted, that she was a person like any other. I taught her to continue smiling, every time people stared at her, and if people continued staring at her, to explain to them something about EB. She especially told them that the disease was not contagious, that she had inherited it from her parents. This satisfied them greatly. When she was told something about her being an adopted child, she always answered them that their parents had had to accept them whether they wanted to have babies or not, and that she was special because "I was chosen!"

We also made things easy for her to achieve her goals. For example, when she bought her car, I sold mine, and that way we had enough money for buying it. As I have always been an employee, with a salary, we did not have "extra" money, but we always managed to obtain what we needed for her to achieve her dreams.

Annie fought for her life till the end. She never gave up, and though her temper was strong, her human quality was incredible. God Our Father took her with him, in Monterrey, on November, 6th 2005.

For more information on Debra Mexico's activities, please visit: www.debra.org.mx or email Dr. Salas at: drjuliosalas@gmail.com

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