As I stand above my life looking down from above, seeing things in a way I never thought I would, could this be the beginning or the end of my life as I knew it.  In the middle of the highway my little body lay, not really remembering how I got there, or where I would go from there.  However it would be a battle, a hard long battle.   For fourteen weeks my fate remained in the hands of God.  The community that barely knew me would step up and rally round the ‘little boy that wasn’t expected to live.’

You know what they say about the middle child, well they are absolutely correct.  I have an older sister, an older and a younger brother.  I was strong willed and a boy through and through, and I still am. I think if my mother had it all to do over again my middle name would have been ‘Trouble,’ instead of Robert William.   In March of my third grade year, I was going to see just how much trouble I would be worth. 

Lying in a hospital bed listening to things going on all around me, wanting to scream ‘let me out,’ but no words would come.  I remember how painful it was to hear as people would talk to me and not being able to answer.  Wondering from time to time what would come or happen next.  As a young eight year old boy that loved to play soccer with several of his friends from school, he did not know what his future would actually hold. Being fearless was the game I played and would typically win.  The cheering crowd from the sidelines of the soccer field was now cheering me on from the side of my hospital bed.   

My hospital room was filled with cards and letters written from the children in not only my class but the whole school.   Churches that never even knew me got together and collected money in hopes to help support my family.  A lady that came upon the accident stopped back by my house a week later leaving a care package of food on our doorstep.   Myself, as well as my family was blessed beyond means, and I blessed people that I had never met before by the miracle that took place at 967 Rock Hill Hwy. 

             As I sit and ponder about my life and how it would truly turn out.  I knew that no matter what would take place that I had a loving family that would be by my side through it all.  A family that was created by not only my personal one but my church and school families as well.  As I look back on my life, I have decided that there is nothing that I would change. 

                The above is a short memoir that I recently wrote for a class in which I am taking in college.  You see when I was 8 years old I was hit by a car and not expected to live.  I sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury, which left me with many physical disabilities; however my brain escaped the massive injury in which they first thought.  Because of my physical limitations, I cannot: write my name, hold books, feed myself certain dishes, drive a car or live on my own.  With the assistance of an inserted Baclofen Pump, I have managed to learn to take care of my personal care (shower, dressing, and brushing my teeth). 

            My Baclofen Pump runs on a battery, this battery will die at the end of May.  Baclofen is not a medication that you can just stop cold turkey.  My surgeon will not replace my batteries until I have paid an outstanding balance that I was unaware of from 2008.  That outstanding balance is $4500.  In the last 15 years I have never ask for help, my family and God has always been there, unfortunately this is not an amount that I can get from my family.  I know that God will truly bless you if you are able to help me.