PARENTING November 9, 2009 Issue

INSTANT FATHERHOOD

MARK DEGANGE

WHILE LIVING IN GREECE in the 1990s, I married a lovely Athenian woman, I discovered that my commitment to her included the land, its food, language, and calendar—and especially to her son, Georgie.

I first met Georgie, a gentle five-year-old, in his mother's bed and bath shop. He was playing animatedly by himself behind the cash register, waving a coin in the air, then settling into a quietly plaintive Greek song. I was charmed. I also noticed that he was unable to see. Nonetheless, he and I went for a walk that very day.

I soon learned that my wife's friends had her story backward. All they saw was a single mom with a blind son—and a difficult, tainted, life ahead. When I came along, those friends were swift to remind her how lucky she was to have gotten me, as if I were the American knight come to the rescue. She quietly bore it, while I felt angry at their own "blindness." In one swoop, God had given me two loves who readily accepted and loved me.