Her children were living miracles. All three of them, but her youngest two especially. Both Angelo and Eliana had been born with complications. Her little angel was born virtually on time, but sustained a brachial plexus injury to his left shoulder upon birth. Both Amanda and Niels had watched him struggle from day one to make use of his injured arm. He’d gone from being unable to grip anything, to being able to hold his arm completely above his head with enough encouragement. There was still lots of room for improvement, but he was healing. Eliana was born quite tiny due to her pre-maturity and struggled to breathe on her own in the beginning. After a half a year of constantly worrying about her, Amanda felt more at ease. “Look at them,” she said to Niels. “They’re absolutely perfect.” Angelo was chatting away with Elia as she pointed to random things that could only be imaginative. Little specks of dust, fallen leaves... Then her big sister stole the spotlight over those imaginative things. Angelo and Elia giggled as Emi twirled around in the grass, the skirt of her dress flowing around her so elegantly it seemed to have been created just for dance. She’d chosen it especially to ‘perform’ for Angelo’s birthday, and indeed Angelo seemed to love watching his big sister dance.
“Yay!” he exclaimed, clapping. He was clapping! Quite perfectly, if it wasn’t just Amanda’s mind playing tricks on her. He would be fine. One day, he would have full use of both hands and perhaps his childhood struggles would be far behind him. “Hey! Has anyone seen a little boy around here? Approximately this tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, four years old?” Angelo’s eyes lit up. He jumped to his feet and exclaimed excitedly. “I’m foah!” Amanda laughed softly. “You most certainly are.”
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Amanda at a GlanceNames: Amanda Pontremoli, Amanda van Loon Archives
August 2017
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