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networks that help us to face life’s challenges and move forward.
Linda’s Story Of all my experiences as a pediatrician on the front lines of acute pediatric care, the ones I had in the neonatal intensive care unit are etched most deeply and vividly in my memory. It is there where the combination of biology and a caring environment meet to make for literal survival and hope for a child. Two stories come together as one to shape my career-long interest in both the long reach of early adversity and the mystery of what gives some children a safe, sustaining buffer and others a very fragile, thin covering. Where does resilience take hold? What is resilience? One story is my first encounter with the smallest infant I had ever cared for. Born too early and too small—barely a pound, this
baby was a survivor. She was just over six months in her mother’s womb before she came into the world, annealed like steel by the stresses of her mother’s burdened life. We called her “Lunchbox,” an affectionate nod to her small but sturdy presence just big enough for a lunchbox. Not like the large, feast-holding lunchboxes carried these days but the old style, small compact ones holding just enough to get its owner through the day. This was Lunchbox, making it through each day and keeping all of us going as other babies, sturdier by weight but frailer by constitution, struggled and sometimes succumbed around her. Her isolette was just inside the door of the first nursery room. All of us walked past her isolette many times a day. We often gathered close to the door and spoke about the day’s business but always with one eye toward Lunchbox. We imagined our constant presence made a difference for her. Lunchbox’s isolette was an old-style box with portals that turned open with a click and a swish, allowing us quick access to the baby. Many a baby, conditioned to that sound, would start to move in agitation or turn away as much as their tiny muscles allowed but not Lunchbox. Instead, almost as
10 The Educator’s Guide to Building Child & Family Resilience
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