A Golden Goodbye — The Joy of Mira

It’s a rainy Sunday in our house and Evan and I are spending some time organizing the chaos that is currently unfolding in our basement. We decide to tackle the storage area which has been a catch-all lately for all of his smoking pellets, fireworks and pool maintenance accoutrements.

I decide to take on the section where I have very meticulously organized all the girl’s things into bins. Somewhere between the box of Evan’s 4,000 Phish shirts and Ellie’s old winter jackets, there it is, up on the top shelf, glistening in all her golden glory.

Mira’s walker.

I remember her 2nd birthday, as it came and went with not even a hint of a first step in sight. We began opening up a conversation with Mira’s doctors, physical therapists and other parents to see if there was anything we could do to offer her up a little more support in the walking department.

It became clear that her 2-year-old body was not aligned with her 2-year-old brain that wanted to GO, GO, GO every single minute of the day. We could sense her frustration, and like many parents, we just wanted to fix it.

One day while mindlessly scrolling Instagram, I noticed a picture of our friends, Pat and Meg’s adorable daughter Addie, and something instantly caught my eye. Addie was using a toddler size posterior walker.

Addie was born with Glutaric Acidemia Type 1 (GA1), which is a rare inherited metabolic disease. Addie has low muscle tone and significant motor delays, both of which led her to using a walker. After a few months, and with the help of a team of therapists and her amazing parents , Addie was able to walk on her own!

Because Addie no longer needed the walker, Pat and Meg shipped it to us. It was like the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Medical Devices!”

Upon arrival in a huge UPS box in late September, Mira took right to it. She pulled herself up, backed into it, and flew across our kitchen floor with a speed in her step and a light in her eyes that I had never seen before.

She had been sent her wings.

This was a bittersweet moment for us, seeing our toddler require the use of a medical device, wondering how the world around her will react, but also a pivotal moment to celebrate. This was a time of newfound freedom and self-discovery for Mira. This walker was the greatest gift of independence for a little girl who just wanted to explore like any other child her age.

The walker that affectionately became known as “Uppy”, became a staple in our daily lives. Her four wheels piled on mileage through her classroom, hospital hallways, pumpkin patches and boardwalks. Sometimes we would take her out for a walk and our neighbors would honk as they drove by, giving Mira a thumbs up out of their car windows.

My favorite Uppy moment was during Mira’s Aunt and Uncle’s wedding ceremony on the beach in Marco Island, Florida. Halfway through their vows, Mira decided she wanted to trek off through the sand and into the picturesque sunset.

Really, who was I to stop her?

Of course, we were also met with the curious lengthy stares, inappropriate remarks (“ooo that looks fun, how can I get one for my grandson?”) and overall ignorance from the general public, but thankfully these people were few and far between. Mira didn’t seem to notice as she was cruising around. Crushing toes and hearts as she wheeled her way around town.

We had Uppy for 3 months when Mira took her first official steps, on Thanksgiving Day. She continued to use the walker for about 3 more months before she had the confidence and the strength to start leaving it behind.

Then one day, she just stopped looking for it.

So, on that rainy Sunday in our basement, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Uppy had fulfilled her purpose in Mira’s life and it finally felt like the right time to pass her on. With a single post on a Facebook group, I was able to place her with another child. A few days and another large UPS box later, she was on her way.

2-year-old Logan from Arizona will soon get his wings.

Packing up Uppy and saying goodbye was harder than I ever thought it would be. I’ve parted with so many clothes, toys and random sentimental baby things over the years, I thought this would be no different.

I was wrong.

In my heart, I know that this shiny golden hunk of metal with the glitter tape and the Peppa Pig stickers (thank you for that Addie) had given us more than just a few months of lower back relief and some scuff marks on our living room walls.

Uppy opened up Mira’s world at a time when she really needed it. It gave her the hope and support to chase all the sunsets she could ever want.

Thank you Addie. Thank you Uppy. Logan…she’s coming for you!