According to a story from tennessean.com, Trishia Warrick, a Michigan native, moved down to Tennessee when she was in eighth grade. Sadly, she never felt very welcome growing up in Sumner County. She only stopped feeling like a total outsider when she went off to college. Her turbulent childhood was made even more challenging by a tenuous family situation.
Although the challenges were real, the experience helped Trishia resolve to do better for the next generation. At age 48, she is now married and has three children. She homeschooled them all, and they came with unique challenges. One of them has autism, and her middle child, Chandler, has cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy usually appears in early childhood and is characterized by a host of mobility problems, such as stiff muscles, tremors, poor coordination, and difficulty with vision, hearing, swallowing, and speaking. Children with the disease have delayed ability to sit, stand, or crawl. While symptoms may become more apparent overtime, the condition does not worsen. It’s caused by damage or abnormal development in the areas of the brain associated with mobility and movement. If you would like to learn more about cerebral palsy, click here.
Despite the challenges, Trishia and her son Chandler both graduated with bachelor’s degrees on December 16th from Middle Tennessee State University. The time was a moment of great joy and gratitude for the family.
It didn’t take long for Trishia and her husband Craig to recognize that there was something different about Chandler. He was not rolling over at fourth months, sitting at six months, or crawling. His left hand also seemed completely immobile. An MRI showed that the developing Chandler had not gotten enough oxygen to his brain in the womb. It was almost like he had a stroke before being born.
Chandler’s childhood meant hundreds of injections to loosen his muscles and hours of therapy. Today, he still needs a walker or a wheelchair to get around. Nevertheless, the process of homeschooling and accommodating Chandler’s physical limitations helped Trishia discover her passion for helping others. Chandler said that his parents did their best to keep his disease from limiting his experiences.
It was this motivation that drew her back to college. Today, she has a job at The Next Door, a faith-based residential recovery program for women fighting drug addiction.
