Sandy

The first story I ever wrote: I was in the 4th grade. I was not the type of kid that would take an assignment just the way it was given. I would always like to go 2 or 3 steps beyond what was said. For example, when asked to draw a picture of a house, in 3rd grade, I drew the floor plan and what the house would look like from different sides.

The assignment was only to take each word from that week’s word list and use them in a sentence. It was not to write a story. While most kids in the class found that to be a challenge, I took it a step further. I used each word in a well written paragraph. The teacher was impressed.

This became the norm. Each week, we would get a new word list. Each week the assignment was to use the words in sentences. Each week I would write a paragraph based on the paragraph from the following week. By the end of two months, I had a full story. Of course, I do not have a copy of the story, nor can I remember the story. It was over 35 years ago. But I do remember what it was about.

The basic theme of the story was about a girl with one leg who could do just as much or even more than anyone else with both legs. Later that year I wrote a poem entitled “The Sandy Bay”. Sandy was my sister, who lost her leg due to a genetic disorder called Neurofibromatosis (NF). The doctors told her that it would be several months before she could stand up and walk. They told her that she would always need her prosthetic leg. She was up walking around with crutches that very weekend. By the time she got home, she said that she could move around without the leg better than she could with it. In a few months she was back at school. So, in my story, the girl with one leg could do anything.

The real Sandy died from cancer related to NF in 2018. She really did prove to be the girl who could do anything. In her life she learned 2 foreign languages. She traveled the world. She was part of construction crews laying brick and towel. Not expecting her to try, a friend of hers dared her to climb scaffolding. She climbed quicker than he could. If I was to write the story of Sandy today, I could not be accommodated using the word list for a 4th grade student.