Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Mary Braswell

ALBANY — Ty Christian West, 11, enjoys reading and feeding and playing with his cat, Luna Bud. He is also fond of swinging, emergency vehicles, dinosaurs and art. The solar system fascinates Ty, as do animals. He can name every planet, every continent and just about any animal imaginable. Ty can, in fact, inform the less knowledgeable on which continent(s) any given animal is likely to live.

“His dad gets 10-15 books each week from the library and we go through them all,” Ty’s mom, Ann West, said, noting that her inquisitive son also reads to himself aloud.

When just three weeks old, Ty’s mother and father, Ann and Ken West, were given the news that their baby boy had been diagnosed with Down syndrome, congestive heart failure and scoliosis. Their new baby was not given much of a chance at survival. Additionally, the Wests were told not to expect their son, assuming he lived through infancy, to ever talk or walk.

It was in the first few weeks after Ty came home that Ann West picked up the telephone and placed a call that now allows a completely different story to be told. The call placed by an overwhelmed but determined mother was to Easter Seals Southern Georgia.

“The guidance Easter Seals was able to provide led us to many resources, many of which were made available even though not covered by insurance,” West said.

While direct services for Ty would not be available though Easter Seals for another three years (at age 3), the staff immediately began sharing valuable information. The Wests used every possible resource available in the state that they hoped could (and did) save their child’s life. It was from such resources that the additional findings of Ty’s cerebral palsy, neuro-muscular scoliosis and autism were diagnosed.

To say the first few years of Ty Christian’s life were touch and go would be a great understatement. His mother and father persevered, though, gathering information from Easter Seals through which they found the best possible specialists.

“We began to work on one issue at a time,” Ann West said.

When Easter Seals began offering services for Ty, his parents heard for the first time what their child could do rather than what he could not do. Speech therapy and physical therapy were available. That led to Ty’s first words and first steps, the ones that doctors prognosticated would never happen.

Art is among Ty’s many interests. For the past two summers, he has attended art camp at the Albany Museum of Art. Chloe Hinton, the AMA’s director of education and public programming, was working with children in an abbreviated spring break camp that Ty attended. The medium of choice was pastel oil and watercolors. Hinton directed the campers to draw a flower on a large piece of paper. Afterwards, the students used the deeply pigmented watercolors to paint over their creations.

Ann West was asked permission to submit her son’s “May Flowers” art piece for use by Easter Seals. She gave her permission and thought nothing more of it.

A few months passed, and as time was nearing for Ty’s bi-annual spinal surgery, a call came letting the Wests know that their son’s art had been chosen for the 2018 national Easter Seals calendar. This was, of course, great news, but with surgery looming, Ann West once again put the topic out of her mind. It was not until sometime after Ty’s surgery that his mother thought again about the phone call.

“I didn’t even realize it was a contest,” she said. “But, if it was for Easter Seals, I was more than willing to have my child participate.”

Not only was “May Flowers” chosen as part of the 2018 calendar, which is available coast to coast through all Easter Seals groups, it is featured on the cover.

Recently, a “Meet the Artist” news conference was held at Easter Seals Southern Georgia at the organization’s Palmyra Road location. Ann and Ken West were all smiles as their son was the center of attention. Ty autographed copies and, donning a bow-tie, did so with a big smile of his own.

Easter Seals Southern Georgia Director Beth English said that, although the doctors held out little hope for Ty as a baby, “Look at him now. He is a thriving, happy 11-year-old boy.”

The calendars, in a limited quantity, are available at Easter Seals Southern Georgia at 1906 Palmyra Road.