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| Reeba Thomas, Melukkara, Kozhenchery, Pathanamthitta |
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While walking with the help of crutches, she often thinks of her merry childhood. For Reeba Thomas, daughter of teacher-couple Thomas and Gracy, life was smooth sailing till her 3rd year in Regional Engineering College, Kozhikode.
It was then that a fever fell her. As the medicines could not reduce the fever, she was taken to many a doctor. From their grave faces she surmised the seriousness of her ailment: paralysis below the waist. As she was trying to cope up with the possibility of an existence in bed, a pain started numbing her hands also.
While the doctors feared that the illness was attacking the hands too, she prayed from the bottom of her heart to spare atleast her hands. That prayer seems to have been answered, for the pain in the hands soon disappeared.
As months rolled by, there seemed to be no change in her condition. After suffering intense pain and being a specimen for doctors to diagnose, she gathered her courage to stand on crutches. But standing or walking wasn’t easy. The frequent falls reminded her of a second childhood as she learned to take one tiny step after another.
Charged with enthusiasm to study, she braved her paralysed legs to came back to college and pass B.Tech with distinction. With the help of her brothers, she initially joined a company in Bangalore. She then shifted to another firm in Thiruvananthapuram before joining College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram as a lecturer.
Today, though with the help of crutches, she is able to walk. She drives a car designed by Mustafa of Malappuram.
For coming back to active life, whom should she thank? The Lord, foremost and then her parents and brothers, her friends, Dr.Unnikrishna Pillai, who gave her a chance to continue her studies, Mustafa, new colleagues and students etc.
“Yes, I am waiting for the command of God,” she sums up her attitude to life.
Courtesy: V.R.Jyothish (text), Soloman Thomas (photo), Vanitha, August 1-14, 2003
Contributed by: Administrator
