"In Sight" Series: 'Worser'

Scott volunteered to participate in a photo/interview series on invisible and chronic illness, titled "In Sight". The photo and quotes are shared with...
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Scott volunteered to participate in a photo/interview series on invisible and chronic illness, titled "In Sight". The photo and quotes are shared with his informed consent and approval. Earlier in our discussion he had outlined that he deals with congenital scoliosis and numerous structural birth defects, and that he had gone through multiple surgeries between the ages of 6 and 17 for these issues. Early on, he came to the realization and still-strong conviction that many of the other children in the hospital where he got surgery had more severe problems, and told his mother on the trip home from one of these early surgeries that the others were "worser" than he was. His story in this series continues as follows in the third of four photographs/captions.

One of the "worser" kids he remembers strongly was his roommate. Back then, Scott explained, kids weren't separated by age or type or severity of illness in the hospital and so when he was 7, having his first surgery, he shared a room with an approx. 13-year-old boy named Michael with terminal cancer. "He was my friend," he said simply, and then smiled. "I remember he was fun." He described a boy who would play with him during the day, a friend, but more importantly, he remembered how Michael took care of him. "I still remember, there were dreams I had in the hospital for the first surgery, and screaming in them....and he'd be up with me. I'd wake up and he was talking to me." He continued, and said that his parents worried that Michael needed the rest, and ended up suggesting that Michael move for his own good. Michael refused. “It was making him better to take care of me," Scott finally said, tears coming at the memory of a lost friend. "I hate when it happens to kids because kids don't have a chance. You haven't started anything. He was 13 years old. But, who thinks of someone else like that[, like Michael thought of me]?" Memories of others like Michael formed him, he said, and then returned to a discussion of his own hidden problems.
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