Sam continued.
Lily shook her head.
— “She opened the place where she’d hidden her words and let them out again. And the first word she said was ‘Thank you.'”
Sam carefully wiped the clay from Lily’s face.
— “Lily, your words are yours. They’re beautiful and important. And no matter what happens between your parents, you can use your words whenever you want.”
Lily looked at Sam, then at Matthew, then at her mother in the audience. Very quietly, she whispered:
— “Thank you.”
The auditorium erupted in applause. Lily’s mother was crying, as were many of the professionals in attendance. Matthew walked over to Lily.
— “It’s so good to hear your voice, Lily. It’s a very nice voice.”
Lily smiled and said a little louder:
— “You have a nice voice too.”
After the demonstration, Sam and Matthew were surrounded by doctors with questions. Но Sam was more interested in how Lily was doing.
— “Lily,” he asked, “how do you feel now?”
— “Better,” she said. “It’s like I swallowed something heavy and now it’s gone.”
Her mother approached.
— “Sam, how can I… Lily hasn’t spoken in four months.”
— “There’s no need to thank me. Lily chose to speak again. I just reminded her she could.”
In the following months, the Rosewood Foundation received hundreds of invitations to speak and demonstrate at hospitals across the country. Sam and Matthew always traveled together, bringing hope to families. Two years after that first meeting in the park, Sam had become a well-known figure in the field of children’s emotional health. Scientific papers were written about his methods, documentaries were made about the foundation, and hundreds of health specialists were trained in the basic techniques he’d learned from his grandmother. But for Sam and Matthew, the most important thing wasn’t the fame. It was the stack of letters that arrived every day from kids they’d helped.
— “Look at this one,” Matthew said one morning, reading a letter. “It’s from a girl in Chicago who started walking again after a session with one of the doctors we trained.”
— “And this one,” Sam picked up another, “is from a boy in Denver whose nightmares stopped after his mom used the clay technique we taught her.”
Andrew walked into the office where they were reading the mail.
— “Hey guys, a very special invitation came today.”
— “From where?” Matthew asked.
— “From the Department of Health. They want to officially incorporate Grandma Rose’s methods into a national children’s wellness program.”
Sam’s eyes went wide.
— “That means doctors everywhere will learn her techniques.”
— “It means millions of kids will have access to this kind of care,” Andrew confirmed.
Sam and Matthew looked at each other and cheered.
— “Grandma Rose would be so proud,” Sam said, his eyes shining.
That afternoon, walking through the foundation’s gardens, Matthew asked a question that had been on his mind.
