Jorge Posada announced his retirement from baseball yesterday. Teary eyed with his wife and children by his side, Jorge said goodbye to the team that he won five World Series with. And I felt grateful to him all over again.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have faced all kinds of adversities in life, and when I say all kinds, I mean all kinds. The town where I was born and brought up in was swiped away in a landslide in 1999. I was alone in Caracas, Venezuela, when my dad passed away and my brother was shot during a holdup that left him seriously injured. My mom almost died in an accident. Long story short, life has tested my limits for sure.
With all this said, truth is nothing has been quite like my oldest son's diagnosis with craniosynostosis, a defect that causes the soft spots on a baby's head to close prematurely, and the only way to correct it is surgery. And here is where Jorge comes in.
If untreated, babies who are affected with craniosynostosis might have complications such as brain damage, blindness, loss of hearing and speech, even death. In the case of my Gabriel, it effected his motor development. Needless to say, my husband and I were desperately looking for treatment here in the States and in Venezuela. I felt alone, confused, and guilty (something I have never admitted before). I couldn't understand why I was living this nightmare, and why my young child had to face such a hard reality.
Sadness turned into anger, and then there was the feeling of impotence. I filled the void created by the loneliness with as much information about his medical condition as I could. With the many support groups for parents of kids with diabetes or cancer, not one group out there seemed to know about craniosynostosis. It was then that I discovered the Jorge Posada Foundation, led by his wife Laura Posada.
The famed Yankees pitcher had a child just like mine, a tragedy they had turned into an opportunity to help others with the same fate. Although we weren't looking for the financial support, we did need help, and the Posada family was there for us.
Jorge, your greatest pitches and hits have not only taken place in the baseball fields. If you ask me and the many families who have been touched by your unconditional support, it has been your human quality within the context of real life what has made you a real star. You will continue to be a star, a star in the fields of love and friendship which are the fields that will forever be.
Imagen vía Laura Posada/twitter
