Community

Mazel Toy!

Big things
come from
a small
package.

CART WALDMAN

Special to the Jewish News

S

tephanie Heather Talon
started out teeny and
fragile. Her first few
days were critical for
her survival.
Born March 19, 1987, via
emergency Ceasarean section,
she arrived at just 2 pounds 2.2 ounces and more than three months prema-
ture.
"She fought to live early on. With walking and talking delays, scares along
the way and learning disabilities that still pose a challenge," says her mother
Pam, "it has been a tough go. Yet she never ceases to amaze me.
"As she stood at Masada in Israel in August, reading from the Torah, it again
proved how far along she has come."
Stephanie's first home was the neonatal intensive care unit at William
Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. "We were with her at the hospital every day
for three months," said Neil Talon, her father and chairman of psychiatry at
Beaumont. "With so many unknowns that kept changing, she came home on
monitors and medication to help open her not-fully-developed lungs. Irritable
and crying most of the time, she was a ball of raw nerves, slowly developing at
her own pace."
Stephanie, now 13, is an eighth-grader at Bloomfield Hills Middle School.
Soft-spoken and kind, she enjoys biking, computers, music, piano, swimming
and tennis. She "has lungs strong enough to yell all the time at me and her sis-
ters [Melissa, 14, and Jaclyn, 9]," says Neil.

10/6
2000

64

To make it easier for Stephanie
to celebrate her bat mitzvah, the
Talon family traveled to Israel in
August for the first time. Stephanie
had studied with the rabbis and
educational staff of Temple Shir
Shalom in West Bloomfield. She
read Torah on Masada with a rabbi
from Jerusalem, along with 30 other
children who were part of the Israel
tour.
"There was such an appreciation
for our heritage," says Pam. "No
Stephanie Talon as an infant ... materialism. We were just out in
and in August in Israel.
nature." Following services at a
hotel in Jerusalem where a party
was held for the group, Stephanie
spoke about Anne Frank and what the Holocaust martyr was forced to give up
as a Jew.
"Before arriving in Jerusalem," says Pam, "we had a flight layover in
Amsterdam and visited the Anne Frank house, where Stephanie and her sisters
were open-eyed." Says Neil, "The trip was a spiritual experience for the entire
family."
On Sept. 3, the Talons held an open house at their Bloomfield Hills home so
that Stephanie could celebrate with friends and family.
The Talons continue to marvel at Stephanie's precious life, which now
includes trying out for her school's tennis team, piano lessons and enjoying
rock concerts. Stephanie's parents tell her; "You've come a long way, baby."

❑

