By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Good old-fashioned care brought back Katherine Cheverria and her chronically ill daughter Victoria from the brink.
The pair had been marooned at home for more than a year when Narre Warren North Uniting Church members reached out to them.
At that stage a sleep-deprived, worry-wracked Ms Cheverria was an “absolute wreck”.
“When they found out Victoria was sick, they opened their doors for me.
“They lifted the world off my shoulders.”
Victoria has been through a medical battle with a mysterious bacterial infection throughout her three years of life.
Doctors couldn’t find the source of her infection.
They advised for her to stay away from other kids and playgroups out of fear of picking up a compounding illness.
Ms Cheverria plied water, jelly and large doses of Nurofen and Panadol every four hours to manage Victoria’s regular fevers of up to 42C.
Ms Cheverria got on first-name terms with emergency hospital staff. In one year, Victoria was admitted a dozen times, sometimes with convulsions.
In between, there was no respite. Nowhere to go to meet other kids and parents, Ms Cheverria said.
Then Narre Warren North Uniting Church minister Ineke Gyles and member Carolee Ratcliffe visited and invited the mother and daughter to join the church’s community activities group on Wednesdays.
Ms Cheverria didn’t initially talk to anyone but started listening to other people’s conversations.
Each week, she and Victoria were invited back.
“The group was so welcoming. They weren’t pushy, they weren’t in my face – they gave me my space,” Ms Cheverria said.
“It was good old-fashioned care.”
Victoria’s infection is now improving and her fevers are becoming less frequent. It’s a relief for her mother to see her starting to play dress-ups, sing and laugh.
“I’m meeting her for the first time now. I’d never seen her happy and playing before – she was just sitting on the couch or lying in bed.
“In one way she was the perfect child but for the wrong reasons.”
Recently, the group suggested forming a playgroup for Victoria and other toddlers who were too sick to go to mainstream playgroups.
It will give socially isolated parents and their children contact with others in a similar situation and some respite from their imprisonment.
It formally launches on 16 September with a second family already on board.
“It will help those parents just to know they’re not alone,” Ms Cheverria said.
“It’s a hard journey on your own.”
The play group is at Narre Warren North Uniting Church, 1 Main Street on Fridays from 9.30 to 11.30am. For more information contact Katherine on 0431 537 489.
