How can a blind girl and my daughter get me to look at life differently?

Yesterday I was killing some time between appointments. My next appointment in the day was to help host a tour in one of our $800,000 condos down on the plaza.

Since I had 45 minutes to kill, I decided to stop by the bookstore on the Country Club Plaza. As I was coming up to the bookstore I came upon a teenage girl and a little cute puppy. The puppy came up to me and was really friendly and it kind of invited me to a little game of tag.

As I played the quick game of tag with the puppy I looked up to the girl who was holding the leash to talk to her. I noticed that the girl was missing eyes and had several scars on her face. 

Not knowing what to say, I talked to the girl about her puppy. During the conversation I could tell that the girl was in pain. 

I said, "I can tell why this puppy is so happy."

The girl said, "why."

I said, "because it is with such a pretty girl."

At this point I noticed a lady behind me come up close and started taking pics of the girl. Thinking the photographer was a stranger I made a comment to the photographer.

The photographer said, "you don't understand, that is my daughter." 

Tears then started pouring down the moms face. After wiping the flood of tears, the mom said, "I pulled my camera out because I haven't seen my daughter smile in 4 or 5 years." 

The mom said that while they are in town to visit the doctors they always stop by the plaza to visit the fountains. While we talked for a while, the mom said that the doctors found a tumor on her daughter's brain about 6 years ago. On top of many surgeries, the tumor has caused her to go blind. Around four months ago after an exploratory surgery the doctors said the tumor has gotten very aggressive and they don't give her more than 6 months to live.

I'm ok with my math and I was thinking if the doctors gave this girl 6 months to live 4 months ago, this girl doesn't have much time.

The mom said, "Every morning she wakes up wandering if her daughter made it through the evening. Somehow, it will be easier knowing that I got to see her smile on such a beautiful day."

Nightly my daughter and I tell stories about our day. Last night was no exception and of course I told my daughter, Cassie, this story. As I was telling Cassie the story, I noticed that she was smiling. Confused because I thought she would be sad, I asked Cassie why she was smiling and not sad regarding this sad story.

Cassie said, "Daddy, of all of the people to meet in the world, some how they picked the best person to meet. You can make anyone smile. I'm happy that you got that girl to smile and that her mommy got to see it." Just then Cassie had a magical twinkle in her eye. The kind that makes me melt.

Yep, leave it to my daughter to point out the obvious. While I spent the time on my tour thinking about the pain the girl was in and knowing she was about to die, I should have been thinking about the happiness she was feeling when she smiled. 

How do you see things in life? 

Do your part and make people smile.

RE/MAX sells more homes than any other real estate company.
For a reason...should we talk?

Another blog post written by: Dowell Taggart Team

Comments are appreciated! Go ahead and add your 2 cents . . .