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401-267-ROOF( 7663) PinnacleRoofingRI. com was quite ready). After waking from his dream about William, might the doctor have offered a quick prayer to a certain Spanish priest for our son’ s survival?
Our son spent nearly four months in the NICU, coming home exactly four days after his due date in September. A couple of years later, I was surprised to find myself face-to-face with Dr. Sánchez-Esteban in front of our daughter’ s new school as I dropped her off for kindergarten. It turned out the doctor’ s son was in the same class as our daughter( the little girl he likely had last seen when she was just three years old, sweetly singing“ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to her baby brother in the NICU). The doctor recognized me as I walked in holding two-year-old William’ s hand, and froze in his tracks, speechless.“ You don’ t understand,” he finally said, clearly moved.“ I almost never see the babies after they leave the NICU.” Here was our miracle child, looking just like any other two-year-old you might encounter. If you didn’ t know William had been born so early, you would never guess.
We occasionally ran into the doctor at school events, but lost touch when his son left to attend a different school, and heard no more about him until the recent news story about Pope Leo’ s first miracle. I imagine Dr. Sánchez-Esteban would be thrilled to know that the tiny miracle baby who once occupied his dreams is now twenty years old and six feet tall, a college junior studying mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. William is an outgoing young man with a great sense of humor who loves anything to do with cars, hiking, traveling, attending college football games and spending time with his many friends.
One of the NICU nurses told us she planned to remember our son’ s name because she was sure she’ d hear it in the news someday. Her feeling was that he must be destined for greatness, given his amazing start in life. Maybe that’ s true. Or maybe he’ s already achieved his purpose simply by reminding those around him not to give up— that so much can be accomplished when we just take it one day at a time and persevere, even when the odds are against us. Oh, and a little miracle never hurts, either. 🆁
36 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I MAY 2026