An Inspiring, Lovely Story Of A Disabled Girl Of 10

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Let's face it, and be honest, sometimes when we see a severely disabled person we tend to feel sorry for them, thinking what a wasted life. I'm talking about the disabled who may be and will be confined to wheelchairs for the rest of their lives, can't in the normal sense communicate, and for all intensive purposed seem to be "vegetables" and not really "living" I came across this story that truly amazed me, inspired me, and has forever changed the way I view very, very severely disabled people, particularly those with medical conditions like Celebral Palsy. It's the story about Jemma Leech who is a mere ten years old. She can never walk, as she has Celebral Palsy and is confined to a wheelchair and will be for the rest of her life. She can't talk either, not the way you or I can. She can however, communicate via the wonderful technology of computers, and up until now could only write her thoughts out with a pointer type stick...but my! The words she can write are incredible. She has actually won writing awards and contests, and even wrote a piece at 8 years old called An Autobiography --Like to share excerpts from it...but PLEASE read the entire thing...it's wonderful...and this from an 8 year old! {quote} Autobiography by Jemma Leech, age 8 I am Jemma and I am immortal! Music is my life and my life is music. My heartbeat is written on a stave, with crescendos and diminuendos, tacit bars and heart-stopping glissandos. But my breath is the libretto, with such glorious poetry and anarchic rhyme that I can't make sense of it at all. My seminal moment came in the guise of a very talented pair of artists Carlo Rizzi and John Caird whose production of Verdi's Don Carlos brought my life to a resounding halt last September. It was like my very existence had been awaiting that meeting and that opera. In one afternoon they had shown me the meaning of life! All the musical forces came together to create an awesome experience just for me. Music transports me to the court of King Philip, an alley in Verona or the farthest reaches of the universe before returning me to Victorian London, wartime France or my homeland today. Even in the dark of the night my music shines bright and fills the room with light and radiance. No sound is heard but music is blaring from my mind into the void. Daytime can be tiresome with its noisy light disrupting my mind's symphonic pleasures. If I were in St David's Hall I couldn't hear more beautiful music....... Language is my paint and my keyboard is my brush. With them I paint pictures of life's more interesting times and scenic views of the future. But what is my future? Many people can't imagine how there could be a brain in this body. They see a broken child like a broken toy, simpler to dispose of than use for the few things it can still do. Some people are happy to be nice to the body assuming that a baby's mind must lie within. Few people suspect a city of people lies inside my fractured casing, with artists, musicians, politicians, teachers, priests and spacemen all vying with each other for airtime on Jemma FM. How can you, they say in hushed tones, read, write and think like normal people do? Surely that mother of yours is just making it up and should stop telling fibs. Well, d'you know? I do have a brain and I do have a mind — and the imagination of Dahl, the poetry of Keats, the drama of Shakespeare, the music of Verdi and the passion of them all in one. My body may be broken, but my operas are premiering and my films are winning Oscars every night. Well, in my mind they are anyway! Carlo and John could see past the wheelchair; they could see into my spirit and gave me permission to try whatever I wanted to, however much people derided my attempts. I cannot promise to change the world, but perhaps my music and my poetry will. Someday...." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/side/5658214.html Her other writings are also amazing..I mean here I am, not disabled physically like Jemma is, and hell even I couldn't write like that at age 8 The wonderful news too, is that a Swedish company who heard of her story, has donated a $15,000 custom made computer, which will allow Jemma Leech to write on the computer just by sheer eye movements, rather than using a pointer. There are video clips showing this remarkable girl, and can listen to her mother read some of her poetry...please watch...they are amazing and inspiring http://abcnews.go.com/WN/PersonOfWeek/story?id=4591478&page=1 http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=jemma%20leech&type I just had to share this story with you...we hear of so many negative things going on in the world, and it's heartwarming to hear something so endearing and faith-filled as this for a change. How do you view very severely disabled people? Does it make you wonder if there is a "life" there...and look at Stephen Hawkings...another very severely disabled person, but who is probably one of the greatest geniuses of our times