When Amanda Scarpinati was just 3 months old, she rolled off a couch onto a boiling steam vaporizer and suffered terrible burns. She was cared for at the Albany Medical Center Hospital and several photos of her being held by a nurse were taken at the time. Amanda has been in possession of the photos her entire life and the photos helped her overcome the hurt she felt from the bullying she received growing up because of her scars. She would look at the photos and be comforted, but she always wondered who the nurse was.
Photo source: Facebook / Amanda Scarpinati
For years, she tried to find this special nurse, who comforted her so much. But she did not have any luck until recently when she turned to social media for help. She shared the photos on her Facebook page and before long she heard from Angela Leary, who worked with the nurse at the hospital the year Amanda was there. Leary identified the nurse as Susan Berger.
When the two met again after 38 years, Amanda was overjoyed and said that hugging Susan was much like hugging her mom exclaiming, “Oh, my God, you’re real.”
Photo source: Facebook / Amanda Scarpinati
Meeting Susan has been liberating for Amanda. She wrote in a post on Facebook, “I’ve spent a lifetime wondering and asking God ‘Why me?’. [I] spent a lifetime doing all I could do to hide from anyone ever seeing my scars and disfigured hand. Well God has answered that why. Its to give inspiration, hope, appreciation to all those who touch peoples lives and most of all for me to feel liberated and unchained and no longer ashamed. ”
Photo source: Facebook / Amanda Scarpinati
It seems that Amanda had also made a lifelong impression on Susan. Susan told CBS This Morning that she was “mesmerized” by the infant who didn’t cry despite the pain she must have been in. “She was so good,” Susan says. “I know I held her for a longtime. I was smitten, I was quite smitten.”
In the video below is of the pair first laying eyes on each other after 38 years.
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What an amazing story. It’s such a wonderful reminder of the powerful effect compassion and caring can have on someone’s life, even if it’s from a complete stranger.
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