My daughter has never been able to smell or taste anything

As a dad, there are a few topics that are out of bounds. Back when I was a kid, my friends and I never mentioned my dad’s weight. My friend Phil’s parents were divorced, and we never talked about his dad.<br><br>For me, it was my kid’s face.<br><br>When she was born, she came out with a chunk of her face missing. It’s called Congenital Facial Anomalies, and it’s pretty rare. About one in a million births.<br><br>My kid was one of the ones with a defect so bad, she needed a breathing tube in her throat just to stay alive.<br><br>Why am I mentioning this here? Because she was cured. She was healed.<br><br>And the reason she was healed has to do with the title of this post. She can’t taste or smell anything. Sweet or sour, good or bad, delicious or disgusting. She’s never experienced food or drink or air or anything like that.<br><br>But when I finally learned why, I wished I could live that way too. I’d rather not be able to smell or taste anything than have to smell and taste what she did.<br><br>We learned about my daughter’s deformity when my wife was about five months pregnant. I remember the doctors and the specialists and the surgeons coming in to talk to us about it. They said the defect took up so much of her face that she’d never be able to breathe on her own, that she’d had to have that tube in her throat just to live. It was amazing that she’d even been able to survive *in vivo* that long.<br><br>Soon after that, when my wife was almost seven months along, a man named Mr. Solomon came to our house. We’d never met him, but he’d heard what had happened to our child. Told us he had a cure. Told us he had a way to fix our daughter’s face.<br><br>My wife and I were skeptical at first, but the way he seemed so confident, so self-assured, made us listen. And what he said was the most amazing, the most impossible-sounding, thing I’d ever heard.<br><br>He said the reason our daughter’s face was deformed was because she had been tasked with smelling and tasting something that no other human could handle. That the stench was so bad, so utterly terrible, that even the smallest whiff would burn a full-grown man’s face off.<br><br>That was why our daughter’s face was missing a huge chunk. Because she had already smelled what was waiting for her, and even though she was *in vivo*, it had been enough to melt part of her face off.<br><br>We didn’t believe him, but he showed us pictures, ultrasound images of what he called “smellers”. People who were born without a face because even when they were in the womb, they had been tasked with smelling something too horrible to handle. He told us that these people are given a huge reward in the afterlife for going through that.<br><br>I still didn’t believe it, but my wife did. She had the strangest expression, like she knew what he was saying was true.<br><br>Finally, Mr Solomon told us that with a minor surgical procedure, he could cure our daughter. He said he would take out her ability to smell or taste, and she would be able to live with all the other humans.<br><br>We were skeptical, but we were desperate. We were afraid of losing our child, and when Solomon said he could save her, we went all in. We didn’t even care that we had no idea how he was going to do it. We just wanted our daughter to live.<br><br>What followed was the most surreal, the weirdest experience of my life. Solomon told us to walk into our walk-in closet. We did, and he came in behind us. Then, he disappeared.<br><br>I’m not joking. I don’t know where he went, but one minute he was there and the next, he was gone.<br><br>Then, we heard the voice. It was like Solomon was talking, but it was coming from everywhere. Told us to take off our clothes and lie down on the floor.<br><br>We did, and then he asked us to stare up at the ceiling. When we did, a beautiful, blinding light filled our vision. It was so warm, so comforting, that I moaned, and I heard my wife gasp in pleasure.<br><br>I must have dozed off or passed out, because I don’t remember anything after that.<br><br>When I woke up, my wife and I were lying in our bed. We were both naked, and they were both covered in blood. My wife turned to me and smiled, and I saw that she was holding a baby in her arms.<br><br>It was our daughter. She was beautiful, and she had a full, complete face. We’d never even discussed what we were going to name her, but my wife said:<br><br>“Hi, Victoria.”<br><br>That was eight years ago. Our daughter is now eight years old, and she’s healthy as a horse. She can’t taste or smell anything, but she’s beautiful, with a face that’s perfect in every way.<br><br>I know what you are thinking. You think this was just a weird dream. Solomon wasn’t real, and neither was the “smell” that had burned off our daughter’s face.<br><br>But I know what I saw, and I know that it’s real.<br><br>Victoria may not be able to smell or taste anything. But she’s alive. And she’s healthy. She’s perfect, and I wouldn’t trade anything for her.<br><br>But sometimes, late at night when everyone else is sleeping, I have to go outside and take a gasp of fresh, cold air. It always helps me sleep better.