STARKVILLE — Five-year-old Mary Margaret Sullivan has never spoken a word.
“When she doesn’t like something, she frowns,” her dad, Mike Sullivan said. “When she wants something or she is happy about something, she blows kisses. That’s how she talks.”
On Saturday the child that cannot speak simply couldn’t shut up. The air was thick with Mary Margaret’s blown kisses as the family threw a party at their Starkville home to celebrate the arrival of Mary Margaret’s “wish” from the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi.
The actual “wish” arrived last month in the form of a spa and hardwood deck. With a six-person capacity, the spa is big enough for the entire family to enjoy. Mike and Kelly Sullivan have three children: Mary Margaret, Jenna, 9, and Michael, 3.
Saturday’s event was an opportunity to share Mary Margaret’s joy with family and friends and acknowledge her benefactors — the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi and the Mississippi State chapter of Chi Omega sorority — which funded Mary Margaret’s Wish. They did it in style, too, with former American Idol finalist Jasmine Murray on hand to provide the entertainment.
Murray sang several songs, including “In You,” “Make You Feel My Love,” “Beautiful” and “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”
“When the family approached me and asked me if I would sing, I wasn’t just happy to do it; I was honored,” Murray said. “She’s such a precious, beautiful little girl.”
Murray, 20, was born in Columbus and moved to Starkville as a teen. She burst onto the national stage as a 17-year-old when she reached the American Idol finals in 2009, finishing 13th. Since then, she remains a popular performer, singing at numerous festivals, pageants and sporting events. She won the Miss Spirit of the South 2012 in February and will be competing in the Miss Mississippi pageant in June.
Yet for all Murray’s achievements, Mary Margaret knows her simply as the nice lady who sings at her church. The Sullivans attend Pine Lake Church in Starkville, where Murray regularly sings with the church’s praise/worship team.
“When we were thinking about the party, we knew how much Mary Margaret loves music and we thought, “Hey, why not have Jasmine come and sing?'” Mike Sullivan said. “The more we thought about it, the more it seemed to be a God thing.”
That’s because Mary Margaret and Jasmine Murray share something beyond a love of music.
“My mom developed a severe case of toxemia when she was pregnant with me,” Murray said. “I was born way premature — I think I weighed just a little over three pounds when I was born — and the doctors didn’t think either one of us would live.”
Both she and her mother survived, which Murray credited to “a lot of prayer, a lot of faith.”
Murray suffered no lingering effects from her birth complications, which is where their stories diverge.
Before Mary Margaret was born, doctors detected a cyst on her brain and predicted that it could lead to some severe disabilities. Indeed, those complications have manifested themselves in a neurological condition that limited her brain’s ability to manage muscle function and pan hypo-pituitary syndrome, which causes a deficiency in hormone production and inhibits the pituitary gland, known as the “master gland of the body,” from maintaining the proper chemical balance. As a result, Margaret is legally blind, although she has some vision at very close range, and is unable to walk or speak.
She lives in a precarious state. Her body’s inability to produce and regulate its chemical balance has led to numerous close calls.
“We’ve almost lost her five times,” said her mom, Kelly Sullivan.
“Keeping just the right balance — medication, liquids, food — that’s the key thing with her,” Mike Sullivan said. “There are other things, too. A cold for anyone else is like having pneumonia for her.”
Her prognosis is not without hope, however. Mike Sullivan said with continuing therapy there is a chance she may eventually be able to walk. That’s where Mary Margaret’s wish distinguishes itself from many of the other wishes the Make-A-Wish Foundation grants. The spa serves a dual purpose.
“The spa is great,” said Mike Sullivan, noting that the natural buoyancy that the water provides gives his daughter some mobility. “We’ve already been in it quite a few times. The thing that makes it special is that when she’s in the water, she is able to move on her own. So when we are all in the spa, it’s really the only time she and the rest of us can do something on something close to the same level. She absolutely loves it.”
The added benefit of the spa is it allows Mary Margaret to use and strengthen muscles that might otherwise remain in atrophy. If she is to someday walk, the exercise she gets from her time in the spa will have played an important role.
Those benefits aside, Saturday afternoon was a day for music, food and fun. About 75 people turned out for the party, filling the family’s home and spilling out onto the backyard, where children bounced on the trampoline while the adults gravitated to the comfort of the shade trees on a hot spring afternoon. There was plenty of food, including the staple of any child’s party — cake and ice cream.
Mary Margaret, in her unspoken way, seemed to revel in the festivities.
“She does really well when we talk about things in advance,” Kelly said. “We’ve been talking about this party for three days now and she’s been so excited. I think she’s having the time of her life.”
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