Kudos on coverage of touching subject

I like to thank Megan O’Neil for her very inspiring Oct. 16 article, “The little girl who could.”

The story of little Olivia Kalindjian is a very touching subject, exposing a problem that many families face time and time again, every day in maternity wards all over the U.S. and the world.

Luckily, Olivia was born in the U.S., and not in a third-world country where she would end up as a double amputee, confined to a wheelchair. Kudos to her family who decided on a second opinion and went on to see their specialist, who directed them to the doctor in Maryland who saved her from amputation.

I lost my leg (above-knee) when I was 19, and have struggled for the last 51 years with the inconvenience of using a prosthetic for one leg. Imagine how hard it would have been for little Olivia to manage two prosthetic legs.

While concentrating on Olivia’s ordeal, I want to highlight the Armenian Sisters Academy for their invaluable services over a century. The Order of Armenian Catholic Sisters of Immaculate Conception is a unique sisterhood whose members dedicate their lives to the Christian and Armenian education of the children living in their communities.

Their California presence started in the early 1980s in Glendale with a house with a handful of classrooms. Today, they have a larger, more convenient facility in Montrose providing the community with an exemplary Christian institution of education.

God bless them and God bless the Kalindjian family for all the help they provided little Olivia to be able to have an independent life.

And thank you, Megan O’Neil, for exposing this story to your readers.

Albert Minassian

Barstow, Calif.