Dear Doctor Hunt; 

This letter will seem to come out of the blue for you, and you may even struggle to remember just who we are! I am Kathy *&%^&*%$, and you were my son, Scott *&%^&$%^#$%’s, pediatrician for his entire life! I dare say we kept you busy during his first few years, but as we adjusted to such a special child, with your care and guidance, our visits became less and less. It has been more than three years since we saw you last!

I am writing now because, on Friday, January 26^th, 2007, a most amazing event is occurring in our lives! An event we never dreamed possible in those early years, when everything seemed so hopeless to us. Scott is graduating from high school and has had so much success for a child given such limited chances of a bright and endless future! As I write this, the lump of pride in my throat makes it so hard to swallow! I actually have to push how much of a success story he is out of my mind most days, as just thinking of him makes me all weepy and choked up!

He had some of the highest drama and English marks in his class, and has chosen a career path in journalism, and writing. He wrote a novel at age 15, and several books since, but has only published them on-line at a “Fan-Fic” website, yet he has also had two [thus far], articles published on a website for our town, at www.mycollingwood.ca . He wrote the monologues for his high schools’ Anti-Bullying program, and traveled the public schools teaching young children how to fight back and stop bullying in our schools. Lord know children such as Scott endure their share of bullying, some to the point of suicide, and he wanted to draw attention to the damage it can do to sensitive children. I would listen to him relay such sad stories of children pushed to the limit, to suicide, and see his heart break for them. He even told me he had once almost threw himself off a bridge thinking life was too hard being different, and my heart burst with love to hear it was the sound of my own voice telling him he was loved and that he was beautiful! The words you taught me about how to raise this special young man saved his life that day.

You may wonder how I make this connection, so let me tell you. At around one year old we brought Scott in for a check up. I was always the sort of Mum who had things written down, little reports for your files, progress reports, to make our visits go smoothly [you used to kind of snicker at me, but appreciated it just the same], but on this day you put all that aside and asked me the one thing that changed me as a mother of a special child, for the rest of my life. And I quote you, “Mum, are you enjoying this baby?” I could not answer this. It really made me think. Then I began looking at Scott as an actual baby. My baby. A child I had never left with a sitter, or taken to a flea market for heaven’s sake! It had become a sea of specialists and appointments, and tracking his progress. I was a secretary, not a mother!

That day I let go of all of that I had been, and started to have fun with my baby. Treated him like a regular child. Raised him to understand he is different, but just as valuable. I taught him to embrace who he is, and he became strong and proud, and loving. We stopped dwelling on if he would ever walk, and crawled on the floor with him. We described the world to him instead of worrying if he would ever see it clearly, and we constantly, every day of his life, told him his life would be hard, and not to expect it to be anything else, but that he will be stronger than most children because he has to work twice as hard to succeed, but because he has to work harder, it will become easier as he grew, and he just needed to accept it, get past it, not dwell on changing it, and he will have a beautiful life! He just had to enjoy it and embrace it. And the day he stood on that bridge, contemplating a mother’s worst fears, the child I raised through your guidance, made his most important decision. And I will never be able to thank you enough for that! Just finding these words are practically impossible, it’s the best I can do!

There is so much I could go on about as far as how great Scott is, but what mother couldn’t? But that day you noticed I wasn’t being a mother, I was being a secretary, and you made me stop and think, and if you hadn’t I wonder what our lives would have been like? I put my heart and soul into Scott, into all my children, and we did go on to have another baby, a boy as well, which was very hard on both of us, spent most of my pregnancy on bed rest, Dr. Reyes delivered, but he is healthy, so all went well, and Scott became a middle child. It isn’t being the middle child that bothers him though; it’s having a pesky little brother that irks him to no end! Ha ha!

This letter is getting long, sorry, but we just wanted you to know that as this proud moment enters our lives, you have just as much to do with it as anyone! You taught us how to be “special” parents, you listened, you sympathized with us, and you made late night visits to us in the hospital when your own family would probably have loved to have you at home at the dinner table. Please share this letter with your family Dr. Hunt. As they should hear how much you meant to us, and to one very special little boy. Your dedication, sacrifice, and commitment changed Scott’s life, our lives, and who knows? It may change the world!

They say that if you touch just one life, your life’s purpose has been recognized. And you have touched all our lives! And I’m sure there are many families who have had this experience as far as you are concerned! There have been many times over the last 18 ½ years I have told Scott how much we owe you. How a lot of the success in his life can be directly attributed not to how we raised him, but to how you raised us! He still has the most beautiful smile and the bluest eyes. And he still, after all he’s been through, smiles easily, and sometimes he can’t stop the smile, and it grows, even for no reason. Sometimes, I catch him sitting with the biggest grin on his face, for what seems like no reason at all. Makes me wonder just what he knows that I don’t.

Scott now makes all his own decisions. And is a fine young man. Sensitive, caring, loving, and respectful, he chooses an alcohol, drug free life. He has good, kind, decent friends who respect him, and admire who he is, and know what he has been through. The website he was doing his co-op course with has offered to pay him as a freelance journalist now that he has finished school. $75.00 an article. And he took on a second co-op placement working with special needs children at Cameron Street Public School. He works with them on computers as well as English, as he is a wiz at both! He will be doing his 40 hours community service with the public school, work, and then hopefully he will be accepted at York University for the fall.

I used to think the hardest thing I ever did was raise a “differently-abled” child, now I think letting him go is going to be a million times harder! He has so many people rooting for him how can he fail with all that? And the most amazing thing is, he knows it! He knows he’s amazing, and full of potential! What greater gift can there be, but that of raising a remarkable human being? I once had a doctor tell me not to have high hopes for Scott. Guess she should have told him that! The only advice I give to parents now, is to sit back, relax, enjoy their child, take what comes, don’t ever let them see you cry [Scott never seen me cry, I never wanted him to think it was his fault, or that it may be him who made me sad, because it was never him that made me cry, just the sadness of things he was going to face], and just let life unfold as it was intended. We do not believe in luck in our home. We believe in love, and hope, and faith! And the dedication of one great doctor, of course! I do wish you could meet him again and see who he has become. You should be proud too! Thank You from the bottom of our overflowing hearts Dr. Hunt! Now, I will go, and send his grandparents letters to let them know. I just wanted you to be the first person I bragged to!

Sincerely, lovingly, respectfully, and with immense admiration;

 Kathy, Jeff, James, Jason, and of course…Scott