Today’s visit brings us to Sabera. It is a little more than a one hour drive from where I’m staying in Kolkata. Dibyendu and I will bring school supplies for the children as well as two big chocolate cakes that we bought last night at a bakery with us on this trip for all the children and staff.

 

Dibyendu orders an Uber for 6 hours to take us far away on a busy road to the Sabera home. Along the way we stopped at Ashim Gayen’s house to meet him and his beautiful family.

 

Ashim is a computer expert and put our Children are Angels web site back in order after everything on it was erased a few years ago. Because of our work to help poor Ashim only charged us very little and he became part of our Angels family helping us with the web site ever since to be sure it’s running properly and that all the legal certificates are in order to keep it running smoothly. Ashim does GREAT work at a low price. If anyone needs web work done his Email address is asim.gayen@gmail.com

 

After Dibyendu and I had a short visit with Ashim, his Wife and Baby Boy along with his Sister and a Nurse who are caring for his sick mother Dibyendu, Ashim and I continued our ride to Sabera to meet the children who call it home.

 

When we arrived at Sabera I could not wait to get out of the car to see the children but first I met with Amit Auddy who is the manager in charge in his office , to talk for a few minutes and introduce everyone to each other. All of us had a nice chat together.

 

It was now time to go upstairs to visit the children. I have waited 5 years for this moment. Many of these handicapped children were International Mission of Hope (IMH ) children from long ago. When IMH closed its doors the handicapped children were transferred here and Sabera has looked after everyone of those children since that day.

 

I have known many of these handicapped children since my very first visit to India in1996. So I am unbelievably Happy to see them all again. When I walk through the door I see all of the children, some of the children are in beds or sitting in chairs or sitting in a line on the floor. They all looked very good but much older.

 

What made me very sad was seeing a few beds that were occupied on my last visit that are now empty. I don’t have to ask. I already know that means the child has passed away.

 

I understand these children are all handicapped, some are severely handicapped and many times their life on earth is cut short by medical problems but the memories that I have of all the children who are now gone takes the wind out of my heart. It takes a few minutes for me to adjust to this sadness and wipe the tears from my face.

 

I now meet all the children who can walk that are now sitting on the floor waiting to see me again.

 

They all are such Happy kids. I have visited each one of them many many times before. I pray for all of them every night when I go to bed as they are all that special to me. If my Raymond had stayed in India this is where he would be if he stayed alive here.

 

I sat with the kids on the floor while Dibyendu and Ashim along with Amit brought in all the small school supplies that we had brought for the small school they have downstairs. We passed it all out to these children. They were so Happy with colored pencils and lined paper and a box to put the pencils in. When we were doing this a man named Simpson came into the room. He comes to Sabera to give Physical Therapy to the children. I have known him for many years. He is a very good man and good at his work.

 

The next thing I know Amit brought a table into the room and Ashim put the two chocolate cakes on it and Simpson got a cutting knife and was cutting the cake into small pieces to give to each child. It was so much fun watching those kids eat the cake. For the children who were not able to hold and eat the cake the Massies fed it to them on a spoon.

 

I am very proud to tell all of you that every single child in that building along with the Staff had a piece of those chocolate cakes.

 

If you have been following my stories over the years you will remember that there once was a challenged child at Sabera that had a cleft lip and was unable to eat. The food would just fall out of the hole in her mouth. The Sabera staff worked with me to have her mouth repaired at a hospital long long ago. She is still alive because she can now eat. Her health is not the best but she too was in the room and had a piece of that chocolate cake that the Massie fed to her on a spoon.

 

It was truly a wonderful visit at Sabera. I give Amit and his staff a lot of credit. They do fantastic work looking after these handicapped children every day. My only wish is that God will not call for these children as often as he does.

 

It was sad waving goodbye to Amit and his staff out the car window because I know it will be a long time before I see him and the children again.

It was a very Happy visit with everyone.

 

Ray O