A Choice for Becky

When Becky was born four months ago, life seemed to be smiling on Accountant John H. Haire Jr. and his wife. They had a home outside Memphis, near the airport. They had two healthy boys, aged 7 and 2 1/2. The new dark-haired baby girl rounded out their family. Becky was bright and alert: soon her blue eyes seemed to be following as her mother walked across the room.

Recently Becky began to rub her eyes alot. The Haires took her first to a pediatrician, then to an eye specialist, who called in eight others. Their verdict: Becky's ears, not her eyes, had followed her mother's movements. Becky had been born blind, apparently with cancer.

Once, parents would have had no choice but to accept this verdict and await the worst. But modern medical science presented the Haires with a cruel dilemma. They might, said the doctors, have one of Becky's eyes removed to make sure that she was suffering from cancer of the optic nerve, which might then be arrested. The second eye might have to be removed later. The alternative: Becky's eyes might be treated with X rays and radium. The doctors believed that she would have a 60% chance to recover after surgery, only 35% after radiation. But after removal of an eye or eyes, she would be forever disfigured.

Last week, after praying for guidance, the Haires made their choice. It was better, they reasoned, to have some hope that Becky would live, and some day see, without disfigurement, than to be disfigured with no hope--or almost none--of ever seeing. So each day they took her to a private clinic in Memphis for radiation treatments.

Said John Haire: "We believe that if God wants her to live, she will. We believe prayer will help more than radium." All over Memphis, church congregations were offering their prayers for Becky Haire.

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