Sophie Delezio, a brave tough little girl

the news about sophie has been unbearably cruel

it is too much suffering for one little girl and her family

Sophie is a true inspiration she is a fighter and is a very brave little girl, she is so positive, sophie should not have to face this trauma again.

Get well sophie Best wishes and A very Special Recovery.

Australia Post should release a stamp with her on it.

 A real little fighter, may she have only good things happen from hear on 

Get well soon Sophie!

Our church prayed for you on mass yesterday.

God bless you.

Regards,

Josephine Chia

Dear little Sophie,

You have been such a brave little girl that last two years, it's saddened me to hear that you'll have to do it again! Your courage will get you through this darling, australia is praying for you! I wish you a special recovery and i really look forward to seeing your gourgeous smile on the news again soon. Thinking of you all the time sweetie! May you have many years of smiles and laughter to come! All my love Lauren

Sophie is so brave

She has been through so much in her first five years of life that most 80   + year olds have been through thier whole lives

we are praying for you in our class 5 times a day

when i found out i couldnt stop crying

Get better soon sophie

Sophie
you are the bravest little girl i have ever heard ov
when i heard about the second crash and how you survived again i cryed so much i was thinking my eyes where going too pop out.
everyone is thinking of you.espeshially at avalon school

you are as tuff as one thousand bricks
hang on in there
Sophie

I was at my friends house when we got a phone call it was my mum ringing up to tell us the news i was devestated how could such an angel go through so much pain its just not fair.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoox get well soon you can make it STAY STRONG

with love Arna and family

Dear Sophie

I love your smile and I love you. Get well soon and may God be always always with you.

Dear Sophie,

We all hope that you survive and don't give up! Everyone has been praying for you and we hope you feel better soon. Good Luck!

From Trinity College, Gawler, South Australia xxxooo

Sweetheart, you are a fighter!

Thinking of you Tiger

oxoxox

COME ON PEOPLE! this story is all over the front page of every sydney and national paper, and every News channel on TV and the radio. it doesn't need to be on indymedia as well, surely, especially as this story offers not further insight, or critical thought.

beside all that this story just isn't particularly newsworthy! it's the storry of one girl, and that story only really affects her and her family and friends. it has no on-going effect to the broader community, and tells us nothing about the state of the nation, or city. perhaps if this were an example of a current trend, but it's not!

and brave? what's brave? being burned, then run over, then pampered by the media doesn't make you brave, just unlucky. this is just a personal disaster inflated WAY out of proportion by tabloids and current affair shows. shit like this happens EVERY DAY, EVERY HOUR, around the world. WORSE stuff than this happens, but we hear NOTHING of it. but with Sophie, we get a whole week of the same crap in the same media sources, and now that same tabloid journalism is infiltrating indymedia. it makes me furious! this is supposed to be an intelligent, informed critical alternative to the shit we see in our streets and on TV. FUCK OFF!

and NO! the "Elderly drivers" were not guilty of "lethal negligent effect" OTHERWISE SOPHIE WOULD BE DEAD AND YOU WOULD HAVE NO STORY.

and don't give me any crap about being a heartless bastard. I feel just as sorry for sophie as anyone, BUT THIS ISN'T NEWS.

To Sophie 

You are so BRAVE and LOVE by your mum & dad.

I HOPE YOU GET WELL SOON

Love Kaitlan

to sophie 

b strong and never give up... you are the sweetest little girl and are so very brave for such a young age

you show the true australian spirit

 xoxo

I really hope she pulls through okay and that laws are introduced to test elderly drivers as I have seen some shockers on the road myself. Some of them are a law unto themselves.

Sophie Delezio is what 5-6yrs  old n im 15 and i swear that she would have more fight for her life then what i would if i was in her situation. all i want to say is that Sophie is my hero

Hi sophie! i'm 14 and i'm wishing, praying and hoping that you'll get better everyday. You've inspired me and ahve made me realise that anything is possible if you have the will to try. you really are a fighter and my family and i hope that you get better very soon so we can see your gorgeous face happy and smiling once again! With all my love. becky!

Some people sound a bit jealous to me with that 538 readers to date. That's a high outcome.

What is distinctively indymedia about this post includes:

1. The timing of it is early in the news cycle 8.21 am the very next day of the evening of the accident. Before the front pages, before the medical prognosis is known. Too often people in danger of death are shunned. I was not going to, that's for sure. This was early enough that the mass media would still be wondering just what line to take or at least what weight to give their chosen line. It's always easier to work off a draft like IMC.  Most have picked up or corroborated the themes in the post. Sure it was not the first or main coverage but it was early and has its level of influence under my authorship. (Contrary to what some prefer to believe the author was a successful local council politician with a good voter return who retired to do other things not because I didn't know how people feel. On the contrary I usually do get it.)

2. The post shows a level of leadership because at this early time much of society would be feeling ambiguously about how to deal with this awful situation to the best effect for her rescuers. Go all negative and blame people? Go into denial at the horror? No, it was a simple elegant expression of love and solidarity from myself as a stranger in a very positive way that would likely bring the best effect for all concerned when combined with millions of others.

You could call this the Angela Catterns effect. Kindness and charity leading her to the top rating in her radio slot. Quite a teacher that Catterns. High levels of emotional intelligence involved there. 

Notice the father by end of Sunday or Monday of the Friday before was able to re aggregate after a horrendous emotional disaggregation previously. In that earlier state he couldn't do his parentling role. Now he can. Call this corny but I call that love in action, my love, and a million others, wrapping that family up in social positive feelings to empower him for the wicked struggle ahead, "harder" than the first time. IMC have a role and even a shared responsibility/opportunity in its segment of "the media".

3. It is a misconceived to think that a story cannot quite "independently" end up being the same. It could be setting a trend, or it could be a chicken or the egg situation, or a dead heat amongst trend setters.

4. What is genuinely distinctive is the personal emotional courage behind the post openly reflecting personal anguish others would have felt but not brave enough or mature enough to just come out and say it, indeed the feminine side of pretty normal straight Australian male author. Especially at such a sensitive time. The Ying that makes the Yang if you like. That's all to the good in this society. It's about maturely accepting ones emotions and being true to them. It's also tacitly a symbolic giving of permission to shed that tear, project ones own family young ones in solidarity with this dear loved kid.

5. It also has the benefit of mainstreaming the site offsetting the anger, the marginal, the incoherent or unstable, the foolish, the violent words often found in other stories and contents catered for here.

 6. To misconceive the dynamic interaction with other mainstream media (as per point 3) makes me wonder if IMC has a subtle fear of success? I mean what if most stories started getting 500 - 1000 readers. Wouldn't that be a good thing? Sort of reminds me of a story about Saul who became St Paul rebelling against other Christian Jews for wanting to lock up the jewels. Sometimes you only keep what you are willing to give away. Opening up and welcoming the public use of IMC might be the only way to keep it successfully indy media. That's my hunch anyway.

7. I particularly like the way the story was not requested to go on the front page. I never bother, nor am I confident it would be allowed but I just don't really care that much. 

8. On a further a personal note, I saw former Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge in Marrickville Metro supermarket yesterday shopping for vegies. Gotta love a country where that happens. 

One of those kids, maybe Sophie, maybe Mollie said after the first accident to her dad, and her dad telling a journo, and me seeing it on tv, that she thought with the burning car on her "I am dead". This from a 3 or 4 year old. 

Makes you think doesn't it? It seems to me many of today's kids even at that age have so much higher emotional intelligence allowing such self awareness than previous generations. It's a damn good thing too, leaving behind stoneage parenting techniques.

To me that was a very brave self realisation on her part in real time, easier to deny in the short term making for all kinds of neurosis in a survivor, but she didn't deny, and surely it was a very reasonable thought for a young child to have... with a burning car on top of one to assume even in her little heart "I am dead". Where did she even learn the concept of death anyway?

From TV, nursery rhymes, dead mice in the mouse trap, bed time stories? Who the hell knows.  And surely it was a very brave realistic thought. Luckily for her being only a child she was wrong.

What a dark little place she has been and returned once, and hopefully twice too. And yes those of us
who have spent some scary time 'there', or too close, can relate. It's
no fun whatsoever thinking 'well this is it, game over' and really
believing it (malaria in PNG in my case). Come to think of it, that was partly why I shed that tear, like an echo.

Go young Sophie, go you good thing. Ha ha.

that picture is a peach Laurel, loved it. She's a beaut kid to be sure.

ŸDear SophieŸ

I hope you get better soon, you are really brave girl for your age, i hope you grow to be really brave and loving, you are always in everyones prayers ok, so don't feel different, you are just normal!!!!!

Good luck

Julianne

  To Sophie, at school we have to do a descrption of your favorite hero and most of us are doing this gorgeous, brave tough little girl. I just think she has been blessed by a angel or has been given the most luck from a lepracorn but i am just amazed of what courage she has and have to go through all of this, I think she has a life like a cat! and sophie, my whole family are thinking of you 24,7                                SOPHIE IS A FIGHTER, MY HERO!!!!!!!

                      Lots of luv the laidlaw family  blessed be*

When hearing about little Sophie I cried and she and her parents are constantly in my thoughts.  If prayer and positive thoughts work, we will surely see her smiling face again.   This certainly makes your own troubles seem small and I'm sure she will have some sort of positive influence on all of Australia.

Sophie is doing well. When her painkillers wear off she is able to open her eyes and respond to people. They are keeping her unconscious until the pain isn't so bad. She's no longer suffering bleeding from her lungs. She's going to be OK. She's still 'critical', but stable. She'll bounce back, I'm sure. Cards or letters can be sent to:

Sophie Delezio

Sydney Children's Hospital
High Street
Randwick NSW 2031

I just read some stuff above and think its way off beam.

In accident no.1 she was hit by a car inside a kindergarten.

Then she suffered terrible burns.

Then she lost both feet. She surely does know how a bombing victim in Iraq feels like, or any other victim of major physical trauma.

Hers was very, very bad luck. About as bad luck as you can imagine  at that stage of life in safe old Sydney. Think of the safest place you can think of and then say its actually deadly.

That's what happened to Sophie, so she is the survivor of a big shock in domestic suburbia. She is totally innocent and symbolises the innocence of all like her who suffer cruel accidents. So its not that she is better than anyone else just that her situation is so shocking and emblematic of how good people still get hurt in this world.

Now she survived. People admire that. Her family coped which is admirable. Her community coped again admirable. She potentially may transcend her disabilities given all the rallying done.

In my impression Australians love an underdog like Sophie because we have a long culture of brutalised convicts who were very much the underdog vis a vis the British penal system (though Aborigines were in turn their victims by design too I think of the UK Colonial Office).

This next accident is on a level crossing for God sake. It's the second one. It's very very not fair too, more so than an ordinary part of the street.

Sure she is a very cute kid, but people still love ugly kids for their truth and honest approach to life too. I've seen such kids, say with advanced aging syndrome on 60 Minutes and their inner goodness and lovable nature shines through still. People loved the Elephant man too and he was a very ugly bugger, maybe because in his courageous plea we recalled memories of feeling badly treated as"an animal" too and that it wasn't fair because we are sensitive human beings with feelings too.

Life is only fair in fairystories so we share her pain but to much less extent obviously. And she and her folks and her community don't get nasty or so angry or crazy, they just keep on going with their life regardless as best they can, and what's more, and very wisely, reaching out for help as they do and sharing that journey as little or as much as they dare, and concentrating on the main game of coping, not getting distracted with negativity, as far as we know anyway many  steps removed.

Call us all sublimal brutalised convicts, or Irish potato famine escapists, or even immigrant refugees, but we like a survivor who can take anything this rotten world can throw at you and still bob back up to the surface. God love ya Sophie. You look like you will make it again.

So I say happily and proudly, go Sophie you good thing, go go go.

Hi Sophie

hope u get better sooner than later

Laura Lancaster