A Glimmer of Hope and Tribute to an Angel (the True Story of Hope)
by Shyron E. Shenko, 11/15/2012
About six months ago a dear friend e-mailed me asking that I pray for her daughter, who has been unable to carry a baby to term and had found out she was pregnant.
This is the true story in a poem, of the birth and death of an angel.
A Glimmer of Hope
© By Shyron Shenko
Maria was happy and filled with joy.
Would she be having a girl or a boy?
Carrying a baby for her would be hard
But, for a glimmer of Hope she let down her guard.
I had Maria put on every prayer chain I knew
And asked all my e-mail friends and family to pray for her too.
We all need a glimmer of Hope
To help us through bad times to cope.
While retching through many a sleepless night
In pain and never feeling quite right.
Maria was holding on tight
For a glimmer of Hope she was willing to fight
A beautiful Angel came to visit today,
So Precious and Beautiful in everyway
Although she is tired she is fighting to stay
And, this glimmer of Hope, got people to pray.
All of our wishes are to find a way
For eight days we prayed our Angel could stay
But for Hope Angel the pain was too great a price to pay
And the glimmer of Hope passed away.
If you look towards Heaven on any night
You will catch a glimmer of Hope in sight
If we are sad, we must always remember,
Not what we lost, but the glimmer of Hope that we had
To my Friend Maureen, I have written this Tribute to an Angel.
To my Friend Maureen, I have written this Tribute to an Angel.
Although, face to face we have never met.
We are close as friends can get
How did we become friends, Maureen and I?
Some years ago I worked in a call center for Avon.Maureen, an Avon Rep. called her orders in weekly.I don't know how she always got me and, after taking her order, sometimes we would chat a few minutes, then we exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and the rest is history.
Maureen told me about her life and I told her about mine.
We shared our dreams,
Our heart aches and heart breaks
And our life stories in between.
Here is what inspired me to write the poem: "The Glimmer of Hope"
Updated e-mail From Maureen
6/14/2012 "Thank you so much for all you do and for caring so much to send this to others to help support us and Pray for us. It's so appreciated."
Maria tried for years to get pregnant but couldn't. She was PG prior to this baby. It would have been born now in June. That was so traumatic on her.
9/14/ 2012 Maria is now 6 months along, she is carrying our little girl, whose name is going to be Hope. Hope has given Maria hope after losing several babies.
The baby is growing fine but they are concerned she has water in her Kidneys and lungs and, Maria is to be on Bed rest possibly, for duration of her Pregnancy. Or she will lose Hope.
"Please lift Hope and Maria in Prayer that everything will continue as Normal as possible.Thank you so much for being there and for your Prayers.
Maureen"
10/8/2012The doctors are amazed, Maria has a 90% chance to deliver and she is holding her own but, on total bed rest.They said if she made it to 28 weeks the baby's survival would be much better.That is this week "yahoo" Says Maureen.
10/17/2012"This is the latest of my Granddaughter's pictures.""She's starting to look like her mom when she was young."
For Maureen - More prayers are needed, please
11/1/2012 Maria is in the hospital. And Baby Hope has problems. My friend Maureen is asking for more prayers.
11/2/2012 "I got to hold a 3lb baby doll. (This tears me up) It was so real." "This is it. they have to do the C-Section because of the water in Little Hope." "This is so dangerous for her and Mom. I am scared but holding onto Jesus' hand." "I hope I have good news to tell you next.........."
11/3/2012, Hope Angelina was born.
Per Maureen: They were doing an emergency C-Section Sat at 9:30. "At 10:06 Hope Angelina (means little Angel) was born."
"Both mother and baby are still in the Intensive Care unit." "Both are NOT doing well." "Hope may be there till her actual due date, DEC. 28."
"Now I am glad it is over Maria was suffering too much.." "I AM A PROUD GRANDMA, YOU GUYS!!!!" "Hope is beautiful." "She was born 6lbs 8 oz. she has lost already 6 oz. that's good." "She was 18 in long, lots of dark hair, all around her head but very thin on top." "Dark eyes." Hope has a few things wrong with her Liver but they believe she may out-grow that."
11/7/2012 Message from Maureen: "Hope went from 3lbs to 7lbs." They didn't know what cause this and still don't."
Both Mom and baby have high blood pressure. The Dr's are amazed when they do a skin on skin contact laying the baby on her mother's chest, instantly both Mom and Baby are normal. Hope's chest and head are very swollen but some of that has come down. Maria is still asking for prayers because she is not out of the woods yet. Maria says God still might take her home.
"Thank you for all your prayers and support."
"Love you all. Maureen"
The cutiest baby I have ever seen
11/11/2012 From Maureen: "Baby Hope Angelina, born Nov. 3rd, 2012." "This is the little Angel you all have been Praying for." "I hope the Good Lord lets us keep her for many, many years, born just a little over 6 months, 3 weeks along. "Maybe because I AM HER GRANDMA she is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen."
"Precious is just the right word."
"Only her mom has held her, not even her Dad." "Because of germs and being in Intensive Care, she is very fragile."
"The above was written on my Birthday Monday Nov. 11th. It never got sent out to you. That morning we were called to come to the hospital right away. Little Hope had been crying all night."
We all prayed for Maria as she fell to the floor Praying to God to PLEASE SAVE HER BABY.
Maria had been up all night long and the minister told us she fell asleep for just 2minuets. In that two minuets Maria told us she felt such peace and saw hope about 4 years old running away from her. She said it was a bright sunny day. Hope was wearing pig tails. Just then they woke Maria up to tell her the baby was going and if she wanted to hold her. She died in Gary's arms.
So much this little one was enduring. So Much!!!At 7:15 the minister announced she had past. I lost it, her sister started wailing . Then Maria asked the birth Mothers to come in. For the 1st time we got to hold and touch her. I had the best birthday present a Grandmother could ever have. I couldn't help but kiss her forehead, her little delicate hands.
The hospital gave Maria a memory box. It had where she could take a locket of Hopes hair and leave a locket of hair of Mom and Dad with Hope.She could make clay hand prints and their was an *Angel* dress for Hope. An Angel dress is an old wedding gown that someone has made little dresses for babies when they pass on. it was satin white with little pearl beads.
Thank you for all your Prayers, Love and Support. Its been an extremely difficult time for all of us. She was so wanted..
A memorial will be on Sat. Nov 17th a 4:00 followed by a dinner at Rainier Church in Parkland on Steel St.
From a glimmer of Hope to Keeping Faith
- From a Glimmer of Hope to Keeping Faith
My friend Maureen asked me to pray for her daughter Maria, pray that she gets her little girl... Faith. I thought Maria is pregnant until I read Maria's note of thanks to everyone for their prayers.
© 2012 Shyron E Shenko