View Five

I grew up hearing the story of what happened to Melanie. She is four years older than I am, and I wasn't even a gleam in my parent's eyes. In fact, my mother was pregnant with a baby when my sister was burned. If she hadn't lost the baby, I'd never have been born. That's wierd to think about.

What do I remember about Melanie's burn incident? Nothing. But I have lots of memories about the stories we heard about it. My father always got teary when he told about washing Melanie's burns and what a special time it was for him. I guess he really felt important or like he was being a very good father--which I think he was. But he has a lot of emotion about it all.

My mother talks a lot about how God was using Melanie by her being in the hospital and singing to some angry old man. When Melanie became a singer when she was older, I wondered why God would do something like that for her but not for me. I'm a really good singer, too. I wonder sometimes, about how God does what He does--how he makes the decision to give a sign to one person but not another.

Melanie never really talked about what happened to her, even when she was older. But Mother and Dad seemed to have a lot of emotion about it and loved to tell the story--to us or anyone else who would hear it. It made me feel like I lived in a shadow sometimes, especially as she became more known in our town.

I know that God has certainly worked in my life. I'm glad my sister didn't die of her burns. I don't think about it much because as I said earlier, I wasn't even there.