Parents Need Love: Anne Louis Unconditional Love Beats All Odds
Written By: Shamika Sanders
Anne and her husband Alande Louis spent 361 days in the hospital after their first child Adonis was born premature.
“Adonis was in the hospital in Long Island for about two months until [doctors], told me ‘They wouldn't be able to save him.’ I held onto my baby and I then did what any other millennial would do -- I got on Facebook and I said, ‘Hey, my kid's not going to make it to the end of the weekend. And then people told me, ‘Go to Ohio.’”
Anne and her Alande uprooted their lives to move to Ohio. The decision would save Adonis’ precious young life. There, he got the care he needed to survive. Small but mighty, Adonis was vent and trach dependent for almost two years. He was eventually diagnosed with autism and cerebral palsy. However, Anne wouldn’t let his Adonis’ medical ailments and fearmongering in the medical community keep them from seeing the world. Once he was released from the hospital, they moved back to New York a month after the pandemic. And when the world opened back up, they hit the road.
“We traveled everywhere with a vent and oxygen,” she explained. “If my son is going to pass at any moment, for whatever reason, I want to live.”
Anne considers herself much a contrarian when it comes to the medical field. “We would take road trips, we would fly -- we learned how to navigate the equipment differently.”
“What I'm learning from parents or adults who have Cerebral Palsy is, there's no limit. There's still so much to do. If anything, society needs to be a lot more accommodating for all types of people who ambulate in different ways.”
Adonis is five now, and a big brother. Anne and Alande welcomed a healthy baby girl Adriande into the world, four months ago, and their trio became a quartet. This time, she had a planned “gentle” c-section. She got to choose the music her daughter would be born to and mood lighting for an experience she and her husband got to experience for the first time.
Through it all, Anne and Alande’s relationship has been the foundation to get them through. In a moment of full transparency, Anne recalls the strain raising a special needs child put on their union.
“You are barely making it every day. You're barely sleeping, you're barely able to take care of yourself. I think that for the longest we struggled. I mean, we broke up how many times? I think my husband even called off our wedding at some point.”
All relationships have had its ups and downs, but ultimately, they realized they had to lean on each other. Anne laughed remembering the Eric Benet concert that bonded them in ways they’d never imagine.
“He took me to this Eric Benet concert and there was a song that he was singing. And at some point, he and I both got emotional. It was at that point that we realized, Yo, we're really in this together. By any means necessary, we're gonna make it.”
This summer, The Louis family is taking it easy. “We did have a trip booked to London and then we canceled it. But that will never happen again. Mark my words.”