The setting: New York City, 1960. Bob and Jeanette Freson had tried for years to have a child with no success. Adopting a child proved challenging: one agency refused them because he was Catholic, another refused because she was Protestant. A third agency put them on a waiting list. Soon after, they headed off to Belgium, Bob’s native land, for a vacation.

While in Belgium, they visited a home that had children available for adoption, which they’d heard about a year earlier. They didn’t go there planning to get a child — again, they were on a waiting list back in the states — but it turned out the home had a ninemonth old baby girl available, which no one wanted because she had a club foot. Bob and Jeanette did not hesitate; they offered to take the girl. “We always thought it was better to say ‘Yes’ before saying ‘No,’” Bob explained.

The unexpected addition to the family presented problems. Bob and Janette were scheduled to return to the U.S. by boat in five days, and they had no paraphernalia (diapers, carrier, crib, etc.) for Babette, their new baby. Moreover, Babette would need a visa and a passport. Ingenuity, the American Embassy and Bob’s sister in Brussels helped solve the problems. When they got off the boat in New York City, Jeanette was carrying the baby, much to the surprise of Jeanette’s mother who wept for joy.

Babette had to wear a specialized shoe at night, which had a crank for turning to help correct the foot. “She would cry in pain,” Bob recalls. When the problem was corrected the doctor told the parents that Babette would need lots of exercise to strengthen her foot and ankle. When Babette was three, her parents enrolled her in the Newbury Ballet School, which was right near Bob’s photographic studio in Carnegie Hall.

“I loved it,” recalls Babette. “They would tell us to dance like a flower; other girls would dance like tulips, and I would dance like a cactus.” Babette continued her dancing lessons after the family moved to Europe when she was eleven, enrolling at several renowned dancing schools.

While Babette’s dancing in Europe went well, her academic progress did not. “Babette was always a happy child,” says her father, “but she had trouble in school.” A diagnosis years later revealed that Babette had a severe case of dyslexia. When Babette was 17, she returned to New York City with fine dancing skills and the dream to become a professional dancer. Despite the odds, she experienced success, landing roles with the Virginia Ballet and the Danse Classique in Paris, among others.

But then her dancing career came crashing to a halt. “I was dancing a leading role in Europe and my knee was in pain but I didn’t want to quit because I’d work so hard to get there.” When she returned to New York she had arthroscopic surgery on her knee. “The doctor said I had the knee of a 95- year-old,” Babette remembers.

Babette worked as a waitress in NYC while trying to decide what to do with her life, a daunting prospect as she had no high school degree, no career skills, and a severe case of dyslexia. She took a prep course for the GED, a high school equivalency exam, which helped her pass the GED. Next step? On to college. She got accepted to the continuing education program at New York University and transferred to Hunter College two years later.

As a young girl Babette had always loved animals so while at Hunter she decided she wanted to become a veterinarian. At Hunter, she did very well in her science courses and other courses that didn’t require a lot of reading, but not well enough to gain acceptance to a veterinary school in the U.S. She did, however, get accepted to Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine at St. Kitts in the Caribbean.

After some fits and starts at Ross (“I probably wasn’t ready,” she admits), Babette finally graduated in 1998. Then she went on to the ECFVG (Education Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates) program at Tufts University. She excelled in this program since the work was primarily hands-on. “The Dean asked why I hadn’t gone to the Tufts Veterinary School in the first place, and I told him, ‘You didn’t accept me!’”

On her third try, Babette passed the North American Veterinary Licensing Exam, demonstrating yet again that persistence pays. She originally intended to practice medicine in Manhattan, but she decided to come to Maine where her parents lived. “My mother was getting sick, and Papa needed me,” she explains.

Babette has worked at the Bridgton Veterinary Hospital for the last eight years, working mainly with dogs and cats. “I like to be their voices,” she says, “and I love healing them.”

Babette’s mother Jeanette died a few years ago, but she remains very close to her dad, who lives on Bailey Island. In fact, she’s building a house near her dad, the first one she’s ever owned. “My parents have supported me in every way,” she says, “from encouraging me with my ballet to putting me through veterinary school. If they hadn’t adopted me, I’d probably be in some field in Belgium milking cows.”

Bob Freson’s eyes mist up when he talks about his daughter. “Babette is an absolutely amazing human being,” he says. “She’s very disciplined, and she has an incredible ability to recover from setbacks. Jeanette and I could never have produced a child as good as Babette.”

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David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary or suggestions for future Just a Little Old Column at dtreadw575@aol.com.