Romy McCloskey isn’t just an incredible costume designer, but she’s also an avid butterfly lover. In fact, she recently saved a Monarch butterfly’s life by performing surgery on a broken wing.
“I have always had a love for butterflies,” Romy told Bored Panda. “They have a very personal meaning to me. Before my mother died, almost 20 years ago, she said to me, ‘Romy, whenever you see a butterfly, know that I’m there with you, and that I love you.’”
Serendipitously, Romy started raising butterflies of her own when she found three caterpillars on a bush in her front yard. It wasn’t long before they formed into a chrysalis, which meant that they were beginning their transformation into butterflies.
When one of the butterflies emerged from its cocoon, Romy saw that one of its wings had sustained a serious injury; resulting in both top and bottom pieces being torn away.
Given that Romy is a costume designer and great with a needle and thread, she decided to turn her home into a small operating room for the unfortunate Monarch butterfly. In a sad coincidence, Romy had another butterfly pass away the previous week, so she had an ‘extra’ pair of wings to use for the operation.
The ‘operating room’ consisted of a towel, tweezers, scissors, a bent wire hanger, talc, contact cement, a toothpick, and the deceased butterfly that would be donating her wings.
Then, it was time to get to work.
Romy secured the little guy down with the wire hanger so that she could start to repair the severely damaged wing.
Thankfully, butterflies do not have pain receptors, so this procedure wouldn’t be painful. Rory says it’s basically the same as trimming hair or fingernails.
First, the talented seamstress/impromptu butterfly doctor would need to trim away the pieces of the damaged wing from its body.
Using as much precision as possible, she was able to safely remove the portions of damaged and injured wing from the patient Monarch butterfly.
After a bit of concentration and contact cement, Rory was able to recreate a brand new wing for the newborn butterfly.
“Ta-da! He’s finished! You can see that the black lines in is upper right wing don’t match up 100%, and if you look at his lower right wing is missing the black dot that indicates male gender. Oh, and the white on his wing is the talc used to make sure any stray glue doesn’t make the wings stick together,” she wrote on Facebook.
The next day, after a bit of rest, it was time for the gorgeous creature to take flight.
This would be the lucky butterfly’s shining moment. Would the emergency surgery prove to be successful?
Sure enough, after a quick rest, the Monarch butterfly was off and away.
It was an incredible moment for Romy, the butterfly, and the butterfly who deceased and donated her wings as well. Romy took to Facebook to share a very special message about that moment and what it meant to her.
“I had lost a girl butterfly a few days ago. My heart broke because I thought she hadn’t gotten to fulfill her purpose in this world because she hadn’t gotten to fly outside. Funny how life shows you there’s a plan for everything~ She has given a wonderful gift of flight to this little guy and gotten her chance to fly outside too!”
What a beautiful and successful outcome. There’s no doubt that Romy’s mother would be extremely proud.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
