Happy Has a Color

Some eight-year-olds might say, “I’m sad.” Cassidy says sadness is blue.

She pauses, thinking. Happy is yellow. Fear has its own color, too. Ask her another question, and before long her imagination is carrying her into a story of her very own. Cassidy has a way of making the ordinary feel extraordinary.

Born with Midas Syndrome, Cassidy sports a prosthetic in one eye and has limited vision in the other. But she doesn’t let her vision loss dampen her spirits. She soars into stories written in Braille and is gaining more confidence every day using her cane, tapping it to learn what’s ahead. Sometimes she’ll stretch a cautious foot to test the depth of the path, like dipping a toe in the pool before jumping in.

Yet there are moments when a cloud of grey floats in, and Cassidy says to her mom: Oh I wish I wasn’t blind.

Sometimes she wishes she didn’t have to do it all . . . . Other times, it’s all she knows.

Her mom and dad knew it just might take a best friend at her side to keep their daughter’s big, beautiful world alive. Skilled companion dog Casey bounded in like a ray of sun, shining through the clouds. She’s a soft pillow for Cassidy to cuddle into at night, a playmate in the backyard, and a friend always ready for dress-up.

Every day, Cassidy carefully carries a cup of food to Casey’s bowl. As the self-appointed “safety monitor,” she meticulously inspects Casey’s toys for anything that might be unsafe. And every night, no matter how close it is to bedtime, Cassidy insists on taking Casey’s collar off herself. Working the clip helps strengthen the fine motor skills her diagnosis affects. But to her, it’s simply one more way to care for her best friend.