It started out as a normal day.
Then Teresa woke up.
As soon as I walked into her room, I was hit by a wall of putrid stench. It was unbearable. I reached for my gas mask, realizing quickly I actually don't have one. I sought to crawl to her crib, thinking that as warm air rises, perhaps the horrid smell was wafting upwards toward the ceiling thereby making crawling on the floor a little more bearable until I reached my destination. Yet I could not escape it the smell.
When I reached her cribside, I realized...she had been covered in liquid poop for at least a couple hours and had been sleeping in it. It was beginning to graft onto her skin. It was encrusted in her hair. All over the blankets, all over her animals and pillows. (And, for the record, this is not a hyperbole for comedy's sake).
Then it must have hit her and she began to cry a bit yet it seemed she was barely aware of what happened until I ripped her out of the crib and threw her in the bathrub. (It was at this moment I wished that they made a powerwash setting on the shower hose). Goodbye pajamas, in the trash you go. The crib and all blankets and accesories were given a mass sterilization and wash.
I felt SO bad for Teresa! How awful and disgusting it was...and she had been sleeping in it. And to top it off, it was only a few days earlier that she had messed herself out the back and front end...and slept in it! Gross!
I gave her a good bath, and washed her hair 3 times; the fourth time I just put my shampoo in her hair and left it in for the day until her next bath after dinner. The smell would not go away. You know how the smell sticks in your hair after you have a bonfire or are around people who smoke? Well it was like that but "eau-de-poop."
Anyways, after her bath, and her hair still stankin,' the boys kept running from her and saying things like, "Ew, Reese! You stink!" Poor thing. I understoood, but I didn't want her brothers to quarantine her either. I would reply, "Guys, she doesn't like it just as much as you don't. She doesn't want to smell like that." (Or, really, knowing toddlers, they might just not care...)
A little later in the morning, Joseph decided he wanted to say Mass. As I was helping him put on his little priestly vestments, I decided to tell them both the story about St. Francis of Assisi, which I'll quote from the Vatican website:
So greatly loathsome was the sight of lepers to him [St. Francis] at one time, he used to say, that, in the days of his vanity, he would look at their houses only from a distance of two miles and he would hold his nostrils with his hands. But now, when by the grace and the power of the Most High he was beginning to think of holy and useful things, while he was still clad in secular garments, he met a leper one day and, made stronger than himself, he kissed him. From then on he began to despise himself more and more, until, by the mercy of the Redeemer, he came to perfect victory over himself.
So, I shared this with the boys as they "vested" for Mass:
"Do you know what leprosy is? It's a sickness which makes your face and skin and body get full of boo-boos and smell really bad. St. Francis of Assisi, before he tried to live for God, would avoid and run away from these people the way you are doing to Teresa (Ok,maybe it was wrong to compare Teresa's stench to this?). When he started to try to be a saint, he tried to make these people feel loved and cared for by serving them and being kind to them. He even kissed one, even though they looked really deformed and smelled really bad."
Joseph shook his head and John-Paul got distracted and ran off somewhere. After that, I reminded Joey, "Remember, you can offer up Teresa's stinky smell as a little penance too. This is what the saints would do."
Yes, enduring a stinky smell is a good penance.
Now, who knows if that's what made them kinder to her...BUT, the kids were MUCH better and did not nearly as much shun her as before. It helped...I think, I'm hoping...until the next gross and disgusting accident I guess...
This may seem silly to tell the kids stories like these but these are the real lives of the saints who give us an example of the Gospel in various concrete ways. Children love stories and they are quick to imitate the heroic saints if we create the right disposition in them and share those stories.