Excerpt from our Senior Yearbook:

"Roger was a small boy for his age, but had a heart bigger than life.  Roger had been diagnosed as having Muscular Dystrophy.  Being so young, he remained pretty strong.  He walked on crutches, and couldn't participate in any of the activities like the other boys and girls could.  He could not walk, jump, skip, or play.  Susie and Lynn used to see him sit on the edge of the playground, and see Roger smile and enjoy watching the other kids have fun-they went up to Roger. They helped Roger up, and held him high.  Roger put his arms around their shoulders and necks and held as Susie and Lynn would pull him behind as he tried to walk with them.  

In later years, Roger lost coordination.  During gym class, the boys and girls had to use hand-eye coordination and bounce balls and catch them.  All of the kids did the tasks easily and went on and played other ball games together.  Susie went away from the group when seeing Roger try and try to complete the task.  She went to him.  She sat there and played a different game with Roger.  They sat on the floor and rolled the ball back and forth to each other.  Later, Roger could no longer walk well enough with or without a crutch and sooned weakened to a wheelchair.

Despit his lack of coordination, one of Roger's great loves was art.  He wanted to participate in class.  One day, Sue went to the Art Room, and saw a very unique and interesting painting.  When she asked Mr. Ron Kale who had done it, he replied, "It's Roger's interpretation of pain."  Sue went back and looked at it for a long time.  She could see the expression of pain, and was very touched and moved."

--Written by Sue Welda.

Roger passed away on September 22nd, 1998.