Mama Why Didn't He Visit Me

Mama, Why Didn't He Visit Me?

A young man was speeding down the street that summer day in 1917.There were children near a fruit wagon, one of which was 5 year old Casmier, who had fallen off the wagon. The speeding car ran over Casmier. At St. Francis Hospital , East End , Superior, Wis., the doctor found that Casmier's spine was broken and he would never walk again. Paralyzed from the waist down, this little 5 year old for the next 14 years suffered pain, but never complained. He had the courage, and patience to smile every day. Because his parents didn't speak English well, coming from Poland and had little money for an attorney, they could not pursue the case.The young man, whose father was a local banker, had taken his father's car on that summer day. But Casmier never gave up and kept his beautiful smile. The Sisters at the hospital cared for him and the priests brought him communion every day. Casmier never gave up his faith in God. He graduated with honors and took correspondence classes from Columbia University. He took classes in writing and his stories were placed in the hospital library and his children's stories were placed in the St. Joseph's Orphanage for the children to read. But tragedy struck again when Casmier's father, Josef, died in 1924. But Casmier didn't give up. He weaved baskets to sell and sold Easter and Christmas cards door-to-door. The men from the King Midas Flour Mill built him a small stand to sell candy, magazines and other small things. With the money, Casmier bought clothes, books, a radio with headphones and small gifts for the hospital and the nuns. Casmier never asked his family for money. He took his own bath and washed his clothes. But he did ask his "matka" for those delicious Polish dumplings and potato pancakes.It was a real treat for him! When he suffered with pneumonia, and bed sores, his mother would cry to think that this patient, courageous and uncomplaining young boy would have to suffer for no reason. Why did this innocent child have to go through this ordeal? Casmier was pure of heart and life. Casmier went to Mass every day. There was one question that he always asked in the fourteen years of being paralzyed and suffering. And it was" Why, Mama didn't that young man in all those fourteen years,never ever come to visit?" The only thing that this courageous Casmier could say to his "matka" and to himself was"Mama, God loves us all, regardless of what we do." Casmier died on Dec.31, 1931. The family,the nuns, doctors and priests were at his bedside. Death was not easy for Casmier, and he suffered from gangrene to the end. He held a crucifix that the nuns had given him. He was buried at St. Francis Cemetery. He saved enough money to pay for his own funeral and burial. The last photo of Casmier was with his faithful German Shepherd, who wouldn't leave his bedside. Now after 80 years, there is the same question."Why, Mama did't that young man ever come to visit?"