If this baseball story doesn't choke you up...

[Oddball]

...you ain't human.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTLsqfAzKxw[/ame]

 

[strollingbones]

i think progeria is one of the most horrific diseases....robbing a wee one of being a wee one...

 

[Oddball]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9XmA0spCfI[/ame]

 

[strollingbones]

i was dry eyed till 7:41

 

[Oddball]

The little dude has better throwing technique than our damned president.

 

[Oddball]

Not a dry eye in the house, is there?

 

[Jeremy]

Wow. What cool kid!

 

[syrenn]

So sad. Why is it that all of the really good kids get such a short end of the stick?

great youtue oddball.

 

[Oddball]

The un-sad part is Josiah's determination to do what he loves.

The look of pure joy on the face of the little dude dancing on first base is gold coin.

 

[California Girl]

Kids like him teach the world a lot.

 

[boedicca]

This is beautiful - one of the most poignant reminders that every moment of life is precious that I've ever seen.

 

[Kat]

Incredible. Thank you for posting..

 

[PoliticalChic]

...you ain't human.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTLsqfAzKxw

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O! how shall summer's honey breath hold out,
Against the wrackful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O! none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

Sonnet 65

 

[waltky]

First black child with progeria found in South Africa...

South Africa: First black child with aging disease
Sep 8,`11 - The elfin child with the big personality and bright smile calls herself "the first lady" and dreams of the future. But doctors say 12-year-old Ontlametse Phalatse has only, perhaps, another couple of years to live.

"I call myself a first lady because I'm the first black child with this disease ... Which other black child do you know with this disease?" she challenged. Ontlametse is the first black child diagnosed with progeria, a rare and fatal genetic condition that accelerates the aging process, the Progeria Research Foundation said. Nobody knows how many kids in the world have it. In a two-year campaign to identify them, the Progeria Research Foundation says the number of children diagnosed around the world has soared from 48 to 80 on five continents.

The foundation's executive director, Audrey Gordon, says only two Africans have been diagnosed and both live in South Africa - Ontlametse and a 5-year-old white girl. That is probably because South Africa, an economic powerhouse, offers some of the best medical care on the continent. Gordon says there are several black holes on the map in her office studded with colored tacks where they have found children living with progeria. "We know that there are children (with progeria) in Africa, in China and Russia, but we just can't seem to get to them," she said in a telephone interview from the foundation's office in Peabody, Massachusetts.

Ontlametse's mother, Bellon Phalatse, says her baby was born looking normal but that she realized early on that something was wrong. The baby suffered constant rashes and by the time she was 3 months old Phalatse thought she had a skin disease. Before Ontlametse celebrated her first birthday "her hair was falling, her nails weren't normal, the skin problems, we were going up and down to the doctors." As the child aged prematurely, her father abandoned the family when Ontlametse was 3 years old.

Despite her frequent illnesses, Ontlametse enrolled in school at 6 and proved a bright pupil. But she was often scorned by classmates, teachers and others who thought she was so small and skinny because she had AIDS. South Africa has the highest number of people living with AIDS of any country but the disease still carries a terrible social stigma. "It was horrible, I don't know how to explain" what we went through, Phalatse said.

It was not until two years ago that a doctor friend suggested she have Ontlametse tested for progeria, and brought her a book about the disease. It included pictures. Children with progeria look remarkably similar, despite different ethnic backgrounds: small and bald with oversized heads, eyes that bulge a bit, gnarled hands. They suffer from thinning skin which has a network of blue veins showing on the heads of white children. Phalatse said she knew immediately, and a doctor confirmed the diagnosis. "I'm very happy now that I understand what causes progeria," Phalatse said.

MORE