Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

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The Brave Hearts
snatched the semi-final victory fighting a great battle against all odds. It was not a match that had set any new records and yet it had assumed significance as a victory carved out with great determination and inner strength. Doris Hart had reached the fateful stage of the final round with grit and gumption. But to achieve that, she had to battle hard in her life like a brave soldier. If she had not successfully survived the onslaughts which she had to face every now and then in her real life, she would never have made it to the final of the Wimbledon and that would have shattered her life-long dream.
When she was a small child, she had accidentally fallen from the top of a high-rise building in her native town of Saint Louis and had seriously injured her right knee. Within moments of the fall, her right leg was completely paralysed. At that time everybody thought that Doris would have to lead her entire life thereafter as a dependent. She would not even be able to stand on her own and be self-supporting. The doctors treating her spared no efforts to ensure that she recovered from the accident, but all in vain! They went to the extent of saying that she would never be able to walk in her life. They also suggested that her injured right leg should be amputated and be replaced by an artificial limb. In the course of time, the serious injuries suffered by her on the right leg also started affecting her left leg, which too was gradually becoming paralysed.
Her mother flatly declined to accept the advice of the doctors and vehemently opposed the very idea of amputation of her daughter's right leg. She was hoping against hope that one day Doris would fully recover and be independent. She constantly applied the physical therapy of massaging the injured leg of her daughter. Her efforts required tremendous patience. There are no limits to the love and affection of a
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