"So you dance too, I suppose?" I asked Rowel* while taking a break.
"Ah, yes. I dance, too, same as Miriam*. But that was before the accident."
"What accident? Why? When?" This curious little me sparkled with the greatest undivided attention to a story I'm about to hear.
2004.
Motorbike accident.
Head to head collision.
I knew and saw that something's wrong, that something's not right with his face. I didn't pay attention to it. I shrugged it off to myself. Maybe it was because I was raised not to single out & pick out people's disabilities, abnormalities, and the like. And maybe, I was just polite not to ask. My interrogation might offend him. Good thing, he paved his way to the story.
"My face that you now see has 39 steel plates and 19 screws in it. The surgeons needed to do that to at least get my face back. My face was totally crushed and unrecognizable. I was bleeding to death. But you know, God's grace made a way for me to get help, and to live."
"I can't dance the way I used to. I can't join competitions, I can't do exhibitions, and I can't do lifts anymore. But you know what? I may be limited, but I know I can still do other things. I see life more differently now."
There I was, sitting at the dance floor room, talking to once a stranger named Rowel. A living proof of God's grace. He may be a 'bio-man', but hey, he's been through tough ordeals. This bio-man is a survivor. The accident itself is one thing. And getting his life back after the accident is another. His disfigured face has a story to tell. Behind his face, behind this bionic man's face, is the love of God that wants nothing but for him to live.
It's sad how some of us fret with how our faces look like - becoming so particular with our face's symmetry, angle, color and lines. How vain we turn out to be at times. But here's a man who didn't mind the symmetry of his face. He just wanted to see, he just wanted to live. Put in the steel. Put in the screws. Put and stitch it all together.
"I thought I was going to die. But here I am... still alive."
On Rowel's behalf, I thank the Lord for the gift of life.
It was God's grace in this bio-man's life.
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*Rowel is the best friend of Miriam*, a dance instructor I invited to teach dance for our upcoming event at the office. Miriam asked Rowel to accompany her.
*not their real names.
*Cropped image credit : ideationox.deviantart.com
