It was 1977 when Amanda Scarpinati, 3 months old, was rushed in an ambulance to Albany Medical Center in New York with third-degree burns. She had fallen from the sofa and into a hot-steam humidifier.
At the hospital she was taken care of by a young nurse. The black and white photos from that year show her holding Amanda in her arms and smiling tenderly at her.
Bullied mercilessly
Amanda recovered from the incident, but sadly she was subjected to endless bullying throughout her childhood because of her burns.
“Growing up as a child, disfigured by the burns, I was bullied and picked on, tormented,” Amanda tells news agency AP. “‘I’d look at those pictures and talk to her, even though I didn’t know who she was. I took comfort looking at this woman who seemed so sincere caring for me.”