“I work with children with disabilities and my happiest memory was of a young boy named Jonathan. Jonathan was born prematurely weighing just 800 Grams and when he came to us he was very weak, barely able to walk and couldn’t speak at all, but he had a beautiful smile. The only thing Jonathan responded to was music — from a young age he would hum the tunes of melodies perfectly so we encouraged his love for music and kept working in that direction. We also encouraged his parents to begin taking him out into public places…they were scared of doing that before.
Slowly, we began to get the feeling that he was on the verge of speaking…it was just a matter of when.
This one day, when Jonathan’s mother was telling me that she was going to church and leaving him behind with us, I insisted that she took him with her. She was hesitant but agreed. Later that afternoon, I got a call from her telling me that something had happened. She told me she had taken Jonathan to church with her and that he had been very quiet all through. Then the Sermon started, there was pin drop silence and all of a sudden a loud but babyish voice filled the church with a romantic number — it was Jonathan! He sang the line, ‘Oh, my love come and lose yourself in my arms’ over and over, and the Sermon was interrupted as people cheered him on!
Ever since he made his entry into church with a bang, Jonathan hasn’t looked back — he’s a well grown, hefty boy with an enormous appetite for food, singing and chatting…in fact he doesn’t keep quiet. He also goes to a mainstream school and is doing so well — as someone who’s seen him struggle…this incident just brings the biggest smile to my face.”