Little Rose Story

Little Rose was about 7 or 8 years old little girl with Down syndrome. Her real name was Rose, but we called her Little Rose.
_{(Originally, in my language her name was Ruža, and we called her Ružica - meaning little rose.)}

During the week, I would take her to school almost every morning. We would always go by tram. The morning I'm referring to wasn't any different.

We entered the tram and began our journey to school. Ružica was a very talkative and always curious about everything around her little girl with unusually (for such a little girl) deep, intense and even a bit rough voice.

I don't recall anymore what was the topic that morning, but after a few tram's stops, she over a sudden stopped talking looking beside me (we were standing at one end) alongside the whole tram wagon. Then she looked up at me, and with her strong voice asked me loudly, "Ana-Maria, why all these people are staring at me like that???"

Without thinking, I immediately turned my head in the direction she was looking. People quickly started turning their heads, but I still caught more than just a couple of looks. I turned my head back on Ružica who was standing there and waiting for my explanation with her big brown eyes wide open.

At first, I didn't know what to tell her. My brain was working like crazy, and while I was feverishly thinking about how to explain to her this ugly situation, I turned my head once again alongside the tram wagon. People were staring back, again. And then, it hit me.

I turned my head back to Ružica, and told her (loud enough that all the ears of those staring eyeballs could hear me),
- They are staring at you because they are rude and without basic manners, in the first place.

- But moreover, they are staring at you because you are different. You are one of those rear beings to whom God gave a unique mirroring face, and because of that special secret mirror people like this, in fact, can't see you and your face. They can only see the reflection of their own ugly and empty hearts and dirty souls. And that's why they are staring at you like that. They are horrified with their self-image!

- Only good people with pure heart and soul instead of that mirror can see you, and your real face. - I concluded.

When after that I turned my head back, all the tram passengers were staring at the floor or outside the tram windows. On the next station over half of them went out. When the tram moved on again, I saw that most of them remained standing on the station waiting for the next tram.

(Apparently, hearing my answer they couldn't stand to stay in the same wagon anymore. Did they recognize themselves in my words? Were they embarrassed? - I don't know!)

That afternoon when I came to pick Ružica from the school, and while I was helping her to wear her shoes, she whispered in my ear, "I checked! The teacher is good. She can see my face, and she told me that I am beautiful."

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This true story was initially written by me about two months ago and posted as a comment under the @erodedthoughts' My Little Angel poem/post on WhaleShares, but I wanted to share it with you here, as well. I just made a few small changes.

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Posted on Thursday, March 7, 2019

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