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TAYLORSVILLE — Nathan Glad shouldn't be alive right now. Ask the odds.
The 5-year-old was born with a rare bone condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, more commonly known as brittle bones disease. A certain mutation of the disease is always fatal at birth — except for this one exception.
"He wasn't supposed to survive birth," said Rachel Glad, his mother. "We were preparing to have a burial."
Now 27 inches tall and 20 pounds — the length and weight of an iMac, his parents say — Nathan is the only known survivor of the lethal Type II mutation: a miracle, his family calls him. To others, he is known as the littlest Angel.
Nathan plays in Salt Lake City's Miracle League for the Angels, and last month, with the help of Sons of Baseball, got to visit the Major League Baseball team that is its eponym.
The Los Angeles Angels were playing the Texas Rangers July 20 at Angel Stadium. The home team won, 6–1, but it was arguably another angel who was happiest that day: a little boy who had found permanent placement on life's disabled list, but wouldn't stop showing up to play the game.
He met the players and watched the game wearing a jersey made to fit a two-year-old. The letters that barely fit on the back spelled out not only his last name, but his disposition: G-L-A-D.
"He just loved it," Rachel said. "He felt like he was a part of the team. He asked them to hit a homerun; they hit a couple."
Two homers and a win for the boy for whom baseball has meant as normal a childhood as possible, under the circumstances.
"He feels like he has that one thing that is special to him," his mother said. "It makes him feel like he's just like everyone else — he can talk about his baseball games. It's pretty incredible."
Nathan is not just like everyone else, of course. Normally a happy child, he gets frustrated sometimes by the physical limitations of his disease: he relies on his family to push him around in a stroller when they go out, leaving him unable to explore the world about which he is so curious.
At home, he uses a motorized wheelchair, zooming from room to room with a degree of independence not afforded him anywhere else. For now, though, he is stuck in the stroller the rest of the time, while an entire neighborhood bands together to raise money for a wheelchair-accessible vehicle for the Glad family.
Some in the neighborhood organized a fundraiser earlier this month, and one group raised $2,000 toward the SUV.
"It's really neat to see such service and love, and it's all because of Nathan," Rachel said. "The minute you meet him, you fall in love with him. His spirit attracts people to him. You realize life is good and there is a lot to be grateful for."
"If he can be happy and enjoy life, the rest of us should be able to do the same," she continued. "We don't have to live through what he does day to day."
He lives, and he plays baseball. In the words of his mother, it makes him feel special, important. Just like every other kid. And at heart, he is.
"It's so important to realize that just because his body doesn't allow him to do things, he is a 5-year-old boy, and should be able to do things 5-year-old boys want to do," Rachel said.
Baseball doesn't only benefit Nathan, though. He is touching hearts as he runs the field — those of both strangers and loved ones.
