REFLECTIONS: An Ode to Kristina
by Teresita Bacani-Oropilla, MD
You would be in your twenties now, a beautiful, lithe, talented young lady maybe just out of college and looking for a job. Like your living siblings, you would have selected a career that in some way used your assets.
Would you have been a doctor like them? Or would you have selected a different profession because of your preferred artistic talents, your innate love of painting or music and your extrovert ways?
These are but musings of a grandmother. What she remembers was your parents’ love and desire to have you born full-term with all its advantages thereof. Medical knowledge and expertise, however, did not triumph, and you were born a tad bit early. You were a beautiful baby that looked like your older sister and fit into one of your daddy’ s hands. You breathed a little bit of the earthly air but could not sustain the effort.
In your little white coffin, a few toys of your older sister were placed at your side, although you never had played with them.
The family mourned the loss of this anointed beloved child of God. Your name was engraved in your family’ s monument, however to be remembered by future generations.
I would wish( as we all would) that all babies be born at full-term, to populate the earth with their innate talents!
Dr. Bacani-Oropilla is a retired pediatrician and psychiatrist.
June 2025 27