Keeping Up With Jerry (Paperback) | Released: 08 Dec 2010

How do you let the world know that you have a strong personality and ideas about many subjects? How do you express your opinions, needs, and desires? You tell people or write them down. But, what if you cannot speak clearly, cannot use your hands to write or pick things up, cannot take care of yourself or do the smallest task on your own? How do you then express yourself and get your needs met? People with cerebral palsy face some or all of the issues above, depending upon how severe their cerebral palsy is. Cerebral palsy happens when sufficient oxygen does not reach the brain for a prolonged period of time. This usually happens at or during the birth process. Everyone can have a slightly or profoundly different outcome and severity of disability. Some experience developmental disabilities. Some with cerebral palsy are able to walk and some are not. It is the same with speech and using their hands to do the simple everyday tasks that most people just do without thinking. This book is about Jerry who has had cerebral palsy from birth and has faced the challenges of expressing himself and getting his needs met from the people around him. It is also about all the people who have come in and out of his life. The author of Jerry's story based this book upon his own experiences of living life with the challenges of cerebral palsy. During his childhood, his family was there to help him grow up strong and independent. When he was a young adult, the people around him quite often got in the way of his growth and aspirations. In his later years, while living independently, he didn't back down from the many challenges that came his way. Jerry has insisted throughout his life that everyone acknowledge him as the strong, involved, caring, and well-rounded individual that he is. You will see the role that each person in his life has played in allowing Jerry to have his personality shine through his profound disabilities.
About the Author: When I was four, my family moved from Joplin, Missouri to California because dad heard that California had more opportunities for a child like me who had cerebral palsy. My folks decided early on that I wasn't going to use my handicap to get my way. When I ordered my brother Larry to get a toy that I could have gotten on my own, dad overheard and gave me a spanking. Mom, years later, told me that dad went into the other room and cried after giving me that spanking. Dad passed away when I was twelve. When I was in my late teens, it became very difficult for mom to care for me. So, my family arranged for me to move into a care facility. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I had high hopes of living in an environment much like the wonderful day school I had attended. It didn't turn out that way. The hardest thing I learned behind institution walls was that I would never learn to walk or speak clearly. At age 27, with the help of a good friend, I checked myself out of the first care facility. I eventually got my own apartment through a subsidized program in the county where I lived. I currently live on my own but I did spend five years living with a friend. We had a comfortable and pleasant life that included having two dogs and a cat. I have been writing poetry and short stories since I was about eleven years old. For many years, I wrote my poems and stories on an old typewriter, using a crochet hook in my left hand, my good hand. My right hand is strong but not controllable. Fortunately, technology came along just in time. Special software programs enable me to use a stick with a curved point on one end to push in the keys one at a time through the holes in the plastic template that I have had placed over the keyboard. The software program lets me have more than one key at a time pressed down, helps me find words, checks my spelling, and holds down the shift key for capitals and such. Finally living outside of institutions enabled me to attend college classes in writing. It also enabled me to publish the handicapped student newsletter at the college, meet people all over my community, have a girlfriend, hire and fire the people I required to take care of my needs, go on vacations with friends, pay my own bills, and manage my own life. Sometimes I get into dangerous situations, have people take advantage of me, and even get hurt occasionally. I consider all these things are just part of life.