In Memory of Madison

I never met Madison Tew. Destiny only brought me to the edge of the doorway of the room that Madison had shared with many other children as they had come and gone during her ten month stay in the Duke University Hospital PICU. I knew her only through the brief updates I got when I traveled to Durham and a picture on the Ronald McDonald House bulletin board. Madison had a few heart defects but her original treatment plan was the same as Noah’s treatment for hypoplastic left heart.

Yesterday, Maria went to Madison’s funeral with other families and nurses who’ve done time in the PICU and have come to know and love Madison and her caring parents.

There was a time that Maria and I thought that Noah wouldn’t make it. We were devastated because we knew the numbers were not in his favor. Just by putting Noah on the big, scary heart-lung machine, his chances of survival were lowered to 50 percent. The longer Noah stayed on the machine, the lower that number would dip. So, after the first unsuccessful attempt to get Noah off the heart-lung machine, Maria and I had nearly lost all hope.

One thing that brought me some comfort when we believed that Noah wouldn’t pull through was a story that Maria’s father shared with her over the phone on the evening Noah had to be put back on the heart-lung machine. While my father-in-law, Nato, was in Texas for his father’s funeral, Maria called him for inspiration. Nato is a gardener at heart and he told Maria that God’s garden is far more beautiful than we can imagine. And like us, when God picks a flower from His garden, He picks the most beautiful one He sees.

There are children lost all the time as the result of many different things. There are children lost because their parents abuse them, there are children lost in accidents, and there are children, like Madison, that are lost in the best hospitals in the country. It’s hard to make any sense of it here on Earth. But with a little faith, I can imagine that Madison is serving a better purpose in heaven. This spring, God has chosen Madison as one of the most beautiful flowers in His garden.