Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Image: Sue Vincent

When I see a butterfly in a summer field, it brings back a specific memory. The impressions are as vivid as they were nine years ago, when I witnessed something miraculous! My rare observation was not in warm weather, nor was it outside in a field of flowers. What I witnessed took place on a frigid winter day in a large urban hospital room, in the Intensive Care Unit.

I watched quietly while two butterflies played together in the stillness of thin air, as though time had vanished. This vision I saw happened unexpectedly, just a couple of months after I lost most of my eyesight to a rare disease. I had not yet had any rehabilitation or training and could no longer see my own face in a mirror.

I lingered for hours at the bedside of our daughter, Heidi Melinda. She was in a medically…