In the days before cell phones, when my son Kevin was 27 months old, he got an infection in his eye that did not respond to oral antibiotics. He needed intravenous antibiotics.

We brought him to the Montreal Children’s Hospital where he was placed in isolation and hooked up to an IV. His twin sisters were seven weeks old at the time, and being breastfed, so I wasn’t able to stay with the babies and him at the hospital.

Every morning, for the four days Kevin had to stay in the hospital, he woke up crying. After doing all they could to try to console him, someone would call me so he could talk to me and be assured he was going to see me later.

I then had time to bring the twins to my parent’s home and get to the hospital in time to have lunch with him. He would fall asleep in my arms knowing Daddy would be there later to have supper with him and put him to sleep.

I am, to this day, grateful for the caring people who tried their best to console my frightened child.

As an after thought, his eye is fine. We never did find out what caused the flare up and it never reoccurred.