Teo will always seem like a boy to me; that adorable little boy who came to live at Darius House.
But he died in January very much a man at age 23. He had dignity despite the ravages of the disease that had destroyed his body and rendered him physically helpless. Teo had endured abandonment – not once but twice - and a long slow physical decline that would have broken lesser souls. But Teo did not just survive, he thrived. His faith increased and his smile endured.
Unbeknownst to Teo, until he was a teenager and living in his adoptive family, he had a younger brother. RCE found and rescued Alex and brought him to live at Darius House. The boys were thrilled to meet each other. They were very alike. Same handsome face. Same beautiful smile. But they also shared an inherited disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which is found only in boys. Their mother kept and raised her healthy daughters. Teo and Alex had to live with that rejection, come to terms with it, and eventually find how to forgive.
By God’s grace RCE found a family for Alex also, but his decline was more rapid than Teo’s.
Teo’s death was hard for Alex. His adoptive father asked him at the funeral,
“Do you want to go to the casket to say good-bye to Teo”, Alex answered with great wisdom. “No, it would be too hard for me. I will look at you as you say good-bye to Teo for me.”
Then a month ago, his parents, Sebastian and Flori Salajan, had to say goodbye to Alex. The pain of losing a child begs description, but Alex is also mourned by his brothers in the Love House family - Manu, Ghitza and Sandu, who have also known abandonment and disability. All are non-verbal and unable to give voice to their pain. Sandu had been Alex’s ‘brother care-giver’, a role Sandu was never assigned but took on when they were roommates at Darius House and continued when they were placed together in the Salajan family. Sandu pushed his wheelchair, cut his meat, turned him when he was sore. Covered him when he was cold. Took him to the toilet. Alex utterly trusted his friend and now Sandu has no words (literally) to explain or share his grief.
I said good-bye to Alex in September when it was clear his time on earth was ending. He was proud of his mustache which showed he was now a man, he said. His physical condition broke my heart and his smile was weaker, but it was still there! Teo and Alex had put their faith and trust in Jesus and gave testimony to that faith through baptism. All pain and suffering now over, their tears all wiped away, the brothers are reunited.
Teo and Alex taught all of us fortunate enough to know them how to trust God for every day and how to bear every burden no matter how heavy the load. Their lives are truly profiles in courage and the Kingdom grows and spreads by such as these.
Sale de Sport Teo.
Teo’s Sports Hall is going up right now next to Sunshine School on the RCE Arad Campus. It is a monument to courage.
McLean Presbyterian Church and Capital Presbyterian Church (VA) will be sharing their Thanksgiving offering with RCE to help us finish Teo’s Sports Hall in memory of his life and for the use of the many other abandoned children with disabilities rescued by RCE.