Giovanna Spantigati

Once upon a time there was a young boy who was born with no hands. As a child he thought his life was too hard, that he was too ugly, but this wasn't true. He thought wrong.
People said: "I'm sorry he has no hand, poor thing." His mother was too worried because she didn't know what to do for his future. She was sick, she had many problems, she had so many thoughts, she was troubled. "What should I do", she was sad, she thought her son was too ugly because there were no fake hands he could put. Then his mother understood she should try to get fine and have good thoughts. The child wanted to be always happy and use his hands. His mother thought her son might grow up with another hand but this was not possible because that baby was born like this. The child saw a beautiful dog.
The child couldn't hold the dog because he had no hands. It was difficult, but he learned to do it with his feet. His mother tried to ask a doctor if he could be operated. But the child didn't want, he cried, and complained all the time because he was afraid of the operation.
The baby understood that there were no fake hands but his mother did not know because it was a secret that the child didn't want to tell his mom. But he understood that it wasn't good to keep secrets.

He should have told his mother about what was happening to him; and his mother did not want to tell her baby the secrets because the child was always anxious, always thinking of a fake hand. Two months later the child realized that he could use his mouth or his foot to write. The child didn't sleep at night; he wanted to train to move without hands. His mother heard some noise; he tried to open the door with his foot and fell down the stairs. They lived in an old house and the child found out a fake hand by the stairs. He managed to take the hand and a sewing thread to tie it to his arm. The boy was excited because he could move his hand, his mother saw him and was amazed. "At last you did it!" They hugged each other and she said "You have a beautiful hand, you are beautiful, now you can touch everything. Before your movements were wrong, but now I'm very happy." They were very excited, they played together and at last he could hold a ball, too.

Thank you Emanuele for your fairy tale. And for reminding us, once again, that a disabled child will accept himself only when the feels accepted by his mother. Just the way he is.

(Emanuele, 14 years)

Giovanna Spantigati