YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

After reading a story that touches my heart, I’ve found a lot of times that the writer wants all glory to go to God so they don’t add their name. But when I find it in a reputable magazine I must believe that they would not publish it without verification. I pray that this story not only touches your heart but increases your faith to believe that God can do anything.

Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she decided to do what she could to help her three-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new member of the family. And when she found out that the new baby is going to be a girl, she settled on teaching him a song to sing to his little sister while she was still in mommy’s tummy.

So day after day, night after night, she teaches to Michael sing to the little sister that he can’t see but believe she’s there. And once he felt his little sister kick inside his mommy’s tummy, he really began to sing loud so she could hear him. And when the labor pains started coming, off mommy and his little sister went to the hospital.

But complications arose during delivery. Hours of painful labor. Would a C-section be required? Finally, Michael’s little sister is born. But she was in serious trouble and Karen couldn’t take her home for Michael to see her for the first time. Then, with the siren howling in the night, an ambulance rushes the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary’s Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee.

The days slowly inched by. Michael’s precious little sister keeps getting more and more critical. The pediatric specialist tells the parents, “There is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst.” So Karen and her husband contact a local cemetery about a burial plot. While Karen carried her little gift from God around during pregnancy, she and her husband fixed up a special room in their home for the new arrival. But now, they tried to pick out the right casket in planning for the funeral.

Michael keeps begging his mom and dad to let him see his tiny sister. “I want to go sing to her,” he whimpers. After two weeks in intensive care, it looks for sure as if a funeral will come before the week is over. Michael keeps nagging and crying about singing to his sister. But he may never be given a chance because children are never allowed in intensive care. But Karen makes up her mind. She will take Michael whether they at the hospital like it or not. If he doesn’t see his sister now, he’ll probably never see her alive.

Now Michael is all excited as mom dresses him in over-sized scrubs and marches him into ICU. He looks like a walking laundry basket, but the head nurse recognizes him as a child and bellows, “Get that kid out of here now! No children are allowed in the ICU!” But the protective mother spirit rises up strong in Karen, and the usually mild-mannered lady glares steely-eyed into the head nurse’s face, her lips a firm line. “He’s not leaving until he sings to his sister!’

Karen tows Michael into his sister’s room and stands him next her bedside. He gazes at the tiny infant hooked up to all kinds of tubes, not knowing that she is fighting a losing battle just to live through the night. Then, with mom’s go ahead signal he begins to sing the song he learned and practiced day after day. In the pure-hearted voice of a three-year-old boy, Michael begins to sing: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray.” Instantly the baby girl responds. It’s as though she’s heard that voice before.

Suddenly her pulse rate becomes calm and steady as Michael keeps on singing. “You never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away…” Miraculously, that familiar voice causes her ragged, strained breathing to become as smooth as a kitten’s purr. But Michael isn’t finished, he keeps on singing. “The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms…”

Now Michael’s little sister relaxes in as though she’s being sung to sleep. Tears conquer the face of the bossy head nurse. Tears flow from Karen’s eyes as well, but they trickle down over smiling, glowing cheeks as Michael finishes his song, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

All of a sudden Karen is no longer thinking of a casket and funeral service, now she’s got the picture of the little nursery room they made for her at home. So the next day – the very next day – the little girl is well enough to go home! Woman’s Day magazine, who published the story called it “the miracle of a brother’s song.” But the medical staff at the ICU just called it a “miracle.”