Her name is Helen. She has a quick wit, a vivacious personality, and a gentle strength. And when you first meet her, you can’t help but notice her bright eyes, her lovely smile and her energy. (Oh and? She’s alot of fun on a bachelorette party.)

And this Mother’s Day, I tip my hat to her. She has an incredibly inspiring story.
Helen was in the thick of motherhood, and in the middle of her 20’s, when she gave birth to her third child – a boy who was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy. (Cerebral Palsy is a disorder in which there are permanent abnormalities in parts of the brain that control muscle movements.) Helen soon realized her son, Brent, would require lifelong care. And in seeking help, she realized there weren’t any programs or schools to support kids like Brent in the small rural county.
So when he was three, she teamed up with a woman named Janet who also had a son with special needs. (This is the supercool part…) They started a school on their own!
Becky, her daughter, told me, “The goal was to help the boys develop physically and mentally. Especially with cerebral palsy, your muscles need to be exercised, or they atrophy, so that was large part of it.”
Creating the school took determination, hard work, and sheer grit. But Helen took on the challenge with gusto.

“I’m not sure how she went about starting the school,” Becky continues. “But I know that fundraising was a major part of the job. There also was some state money. Money was donated by many, and it required a lot of volunteers to help with the school on a daily basis. They did pay one teacher throughout the time it was open.”

Helen, Janet, and company worked tirelessly to help Brent and Matt develop to their full potential. The boys had physical therapy and worked on life skills like drinking out of a cup or using the bathroom.

Helen went on to have two more children. (One of which is Becky.)

The government funding stopped when the boys turned 18. The school shut down. These days, Brent lives in a care facility a mere 25 minutes away from Helen. He’s lived there since he was 23 and is a very popular dude among his fellow residents and workers.

While cerebral palsy affects Brent’s muscles, it doesn’t affect his ability to learn or lessen his desire to connect with others.

“Brent is very smart, but unless you’ve been around him you wouldn’t know it because he can’t communicate through regular language,” says Becky. “But we know that he is smarter than all of us put together, and he has a great sense of humor.”

Now that Becky is a mom to a beautiful little girl, she looks at her mother’s experience with awe.

“Of course when I was younger I thought nothing of the fact that Mom was such a hard worker, raising five kids, working part-time, and helping to run the school,” says Becky. “Now I am amazed by all of this, especially since she was younger than I am now. I’m such a slacker. The most important thing I’ve learned from her is that no matter what happens to you in life, you can get through it.”
Becky is a dear friend of mine (she is SO NOT a slacker!) I’ve known since high school. Becky and her older sis Kelly are two very wonderful women who’ve inherited their mom’s georgous looks as well as her strength, energy, compassion, and sense of humor.
Helen, you are an amazing woman, mother and grandmother. Happy Mom’s Day!
To check out the post I wrote in tribute to my mom last year, click here.