Seattle Youth Triumphs Over Cerebral Palsy

This is a truly heart-warming story I came across in the Seattle Times. It's about an 18-year-old young man with cerebral palsy who has defied the odds with the aid of his 61-year-old blind grandmother.

Nicholas Homblette is wheelchair bound and can't eat without a feeding tube. Tragically, his cerebral palsy is the result of a stepfather shaking and beating him when he was an infant. He is only recently beginning to learn to talk.

For 18 years, Nicholas has been cared for by his grandmother, Georgenne Harvey, who lost her vision when she was a teenager. She was told that Nicholas was too profoundly disabled to be cared for anywhere but an institution. But Harvey wanted more for her grandson.

Yesterday, all of their determination has paid off, as Nicholas graduated from high school. Now, Nicholas will begin the next phase in his adult life. He will spend the next three years learning skills that will help him hold a job. He would not have been able to make such strides without the help of his amazing grandmother, Georgenne Harvey.

For more information about cerebral palsy, please visit this section of our blog.