Harmony
by Juanita

I never heard of vitiligo until I took Harmony to see a doctor about her skin condition when she was the age of five. That was when the white spots really started showing up. But I had first noticed something unusual when she was two years old. It was during the summer so she was in shorts a lot of the time. When she would fall she would skin her knees on our cement patio and they would scab over and when the scab feel off, I noticed that the skin on her knees was white and not like the rest off her olive colored skin. But I did not think too much about it because I remember when I was young and would get a scrape or something after it healed the skin there would be a lighter color I guess because of my darker skin, but it would eventually fade. So I thought that was what was going on with Harmony. Then through the years I would notice another little white spot here and there but still really thought little of it until she started school when the vitiligo really started to take over. That is when I took her to see a doctor. He told me there was really nothing you can do for it, except if she wanted to when she was older she could get bleached. He also suggested to me that she should have a chicken pox vaccination because the itching and the scabs with the chicken pox may cause it to worsen. So she got the chicken pox vaccination that day. Just here in the past couple of years it started showing up on her hands and face. So with Harmony's approval we bought some very ex pensive cover up for her to use on her face, I taught her how to put it on herself if she felt like there was a day she wanted to wear it she could. But lately she has not even bothered using it and that makes me happy because I want her to be comfortable being who she is and not have to feel like she has to hide it. Through this whole time, only a small handful of people have asked questions about it, I would tell them in the best of my knowledge what it was. But most people don't even ask. We have met three people just by chance who also have vitiligo, and they would show Harmony that they have it too, and that was a good thing for her to see that she is not the only one who is a little unique. Just here in the past year I have learned more about it since she is getting older and stressing to me about her feelings with it. So I went on line to find more information and that is how I found the AVRF. I have never made it out to be a big deal, our family has accepted it well, we just know that God makes every one of us different and that is that. Harmony deals with it very well I would say, so far she is a very happy, confident person. The children she meets are very nice to her and ask her silly questions in a nice way, like "So what color are you suppose to be?" Or they ask if they can barrow a polka dot. I ask her if that bothers her, and she says it doesn't because they are not mean about it. Some times she will have a day when it is bothering her and she tells me that she wishes she did not have Vitiligo because people stare at her, and that just breaks my heart. We talk about it and thanks to the advice from a wonderful lady at AVRF for telling me this, "God does not make mistakes", and that is what I tell her and remind her of all the time and she accepts that.

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