At a day-care centre in Sydney on 15th December 2003, twenty toddlers were napping while looking forward to Santas arrival when they awoke. Instead, an out of control car crashed into their room, bursting into flames and trapping Sophie Delezio & Molly Wood underneath. Sophie suffered burns to 85% of her body losing both feet, some fingers, and her right ear, while Molly Wood suffered burns to 40% of her body.
This is Marees account of the aftermath of this accident and the bravery of an incredible little girl. It also explains how she came to be known as Magic Maree, the fairy godmother who continues to help other children and their families cope with the devastating situations in which
they find themselves.
On December 15, 2003 I was at the local shopping centre when
I received a call from Sophie's mum Carolyn. She was in a police car, unable to talk. One of our friends, Linda, was with her and said: Sophie has been in a serious accident at her preschool and Caro wants you to pray for her. When I got off the phone I couldn't move. I was with Sophie two days before, playing at being her fairy godmother and granting her wishes.
It was a surreal experience. I didn't know how bad she was, but
if Carolyn was in a police car Sophie must be really bad. I went straight home. Listening to the radio I heard them say on the news there had been a serious accident. I ran into the house and turned on the TV, where there was a story about an out of control car running down a hill and into Sophie's preschool, setting the room she was in alight. There was a child wrapped in silver being wheeled to an ambulance and I thought, not Sophie, please God. I knew Sophie and the family needed support so I started praying and praying.
The next call was from Carolyn, who was in shock. They are putting her into emergency, Sophie is in a coma. It's not good, please come to the hospital now, she said.
I felt as if I was having a nightmare. I jumped into the car and started driving. I thought about how I had always felt Caro was someone special, someone with a heart of gold who cared so much for people and life. We had worked together for a few years and I knew that she was a woman of great inner strength.
She had wanted to be a mother so much and had many problems conceiving. She never gave up and she totally changed her life for a few years to do whatever it would take to get pregnant. She was successful after five years and two miscarriages. Her determination and strength brought Mitchell into the world. As soon as she decided to have a second child Sophie came along. It was as if it was simply meant to be.
I wondered what would happen now.
I arrived at the hospital and went straight to intensive care, where Sophie's father Ron told me he had come with Sophie
by helicopter and Carolyn was in shock in the Emergency Department at Westmead Hospital. He took me straight in to Sophie. She had burns to 85 per cent of her body and was almost unrecognisable, she was so swollen up, and then I
saw her black little toes and I thought: God, please not Sophie, what's happening? I started to talk to Sophie even though she was unconscious because I wanted her to know I was there
and I loved her.
I stayed with Ron and Sophie until about 3am when the chaplain came and got me. She said Caro was still having convulsions and they could not stop them. She felt it would be good for me to be with her. As I walked down to Emergency
in the early hours of the morning the hospital felt so eerie.
I was shown to where Carolyn was.
When I saw her on the bed, with her whole body shaking, I nearly lost it. I felt the most incredible pain go right through me. I knew I was feeling her pain and I wanted to collapse as well.
I pulled myself together because I just wanted to be there for my friend, but what could I do? I started to pray and ask God
to help me with my friend and I started to do a healing on her. Then miraculously she opened her eyes and asked me to get her out of there.
I organised a wheelchair and signed her out. With the help of
a nurse's aide I took her up to her little girl. On the way up she looked at me in absolute shock and terror and said she couldn't take looking at her own little girl. I looked into her eyes, her
pain was so severe.
That day totally changed my life. I started questioning my own life and asking what was it all about? What's really important
in life? I had my own successful property business at the time.
I went back and told my staff I wanted to close the business early, it was almost Christmas. I never re-opened. Life had a different meaning after Sophie's accident.
It was the most devastating experience, but it strengthened my faith in something greater than myself, my belief in a higher power. I have seen miracles. In something as bad as this the amount of support from family, friends, the tremendous goodness that has come from people and the community all coming together, so much love and effort to help Sophie, it is
so inspiring and unbelievable. It helped me to see the good in so many things rather than dwell on the negative.
I went to the hospital nearly every day for months. I would take food over for them and for the parents of Molly Wood, Sophie's little friend who had also been injured in the accident and had burns to 40 per cent of her body. I met many families who were having their own profound experiences. It was such a blessing to be able to give some support, be it food or a laugh, among their traumas. When I saw the extent of pain and suffering in others, children fighting for their lives, everything else paled
into insignificance. It put everything into perspective.
I don't take my own problems and difficulties in life so seriously now. I'm tremendously grateful for my own life and felt compelled to do something that gives happiness and help
to others.
I found it very humbling to witness Sophie's courage, strength and will to live, and all I wanted to do was be with her. When she was in a coma I would sing her favourite nursery rhymes and Id read her favourite books to her.
They started cutting bits off her that couldn't be saved because they were too burnt. I remember one day sitting in the waiting room. Ron came out and started to cry, saying they were going to cut Sophies legs off and put them in the bin. My heart went out to Ron. I knew the pain I was feeling so his must be horrific.
I put my arms around him and held him; there was nothing
I could say.
Sophie had last seen me as the fairy godmother with my
tiara and wand, and I wanted her to have her fairy godmother.
My idea was to have a magical and creative world for Sophie
to experience and feel safe, a way to deal with her situation, something that would help her gain some perspective and normality in her life. I would go to the hospital dressed in my fairy clothes or sometimes in my rainbow pyjamas with my rainbow hair.
She loves fairies and we would talk about my sisters the fairies, and how we would fly to the hospital at night when she was sleeping and look after her. When she got home she had glow fairies on her wall. One day she showed me the biggest one in the middle and told me it was Magic Maree and that I looked after her when she was sleeping.
I remember the first time I picked Sophie up after the accident.
I was so nervous, she had bandages everywhere, how would
I hold her and not hurt her?
I picked her up and she looked up at me and just beamed and moved her head on my cheek, she totally relaxed me. Sophie has been a wonderful teacher for me.
One day I was doing Sophie's hair. She was about three and a half. She looked up at me, a little concerned, and said Magic Aree. She called me Aree, she couldn't say Maree I don't really like my hair. Her head didn't have much hair on it at all. Then, with the biggest beam on her face, she said "but I am going to love it when I am five".
Sophie wanted to show me through her photograph album.
As she opened the first page she said "there I am in mummy's tummy". Then she opened the next page and said "there I am as a little baby". Then she turned to the next page, a photo before the accident, and with great pride and joy she said "there are my legs". It was another lesson for me. I felt my chin quiver and I wanted to be brave for her, but she simply went on showing me the rest of the photos and we had fun together.
One day I arrived at Sophie's and she was sitting at the window waiting for me. I was in my fairy godmother clothes and it had just started to rain. She begged me to take her for a walk and she won (of course) so off we went, me in my full array, Sophie in one arm and umbrella in the other. Then she said "let's dance, this is a special day". So there we were singing and dancing in the rain, laughing and full of joy.
One year I was with her at a Day of Difference charity night. She went up on stage and was a little shy. When she came off stage people were calling out to her and by the time she got back to me she asked me if she could get back on stage.
I explained it was a little too late for that. She's really quite a smart little girl because the next year, just before she went up, she looked at me and reminded me how she wanted to go back up. I told her this was her big chance and that there were a lot of people who really cared about her and wanted her to say hello to them.
She was so excited and wanted to say hi to everyone. By the time she got on stage she was beaming from ear to ear and moved to the front of the stage waving at everyone. I was so proud of her.
On 5 May 2006 Sophie made national headlines a second time when she was again badly injured in a road accident. While being pushed across a pedestrian crossing in a wheelchair near her home in Sydney's northern beaches, she was hit by a car and thrown 18 metres. Sophie suffered a heart attack, a broken jaw and shoulde, bruising to her head, numerous rib fractures and a tear to her left lung.
When I received the call about the second accident, I didn't know where to put myself. I was in shock. I was getting calls and text messages saying that everything possible was being done for her. I set about strengthening myself to be able to fully support Sophie, Mitchell and their parents.
I knew what it was like before and I would be there once more. Another reality check! Mitchell and Sophie are a big part of my life and I know I'll always be there for them. I love them with all my heart.
I was helping Carolyn with the letters that were coming through from people about Sophie, about how they couldn't get out of bed because they had something devastating happen to them in their lives, but they looked at Sophie and said If she can keep going so can they. So, here was Sophie at two going out there and changing the world!
I think you've got to experience some of the suffering and pain to acquire that courage or to look beyond it to the bigger picture, but that's a hard thing to say to someone when they're in pain. Through Sophie, thousands of people have been given peace, and courage and all these wonderful gifts.
My wishes for Sophie:
I wish for Sophie that everyone will
treat her normally, that everyone will
see her as the gorgeous little girl she is. That she always keeps her joy, her loving, her openness, her compassion. That she always keeps the beautiful qualities that she now has, looking for a rainbow in every day. That's what I wish for her.
THE STORY OF 'MAGIC MAREE'
AND A LIFE CHANGED FOREVER
Maree Thomas
"Inspired by Sophie's courage and strength, I embarked on a personal journey of discovery that would change my life forever"
Maree Thomas,
Catalyst for Change
