My daughter Amanda is my hero. When she was four months old she contracted Salmonella. For four days her life hung by a thread at Methodist Le Bonheur in Memphis, while doctors tried to identify the cause of her high fever, diarrhea and weight loss. She survived and began to thrive.

Amanda's Mom developed a bipolar disorder. She liked the attention she got while Amanda was sick with Salmonella. She began deliberately feeding Amanda clabbered formula in unwashed bottles while I was at work. Amanda developed a severe intestinal infection and could not gain weight. It was months before this was detected. Amanda became mute, not speaking from 14 months to 28 months. She was then diagnosed as autistic, nonverbal with sensory integrative disorder. Amanda's intestinal infection was treated and she started to gain weight. She received four hours of therapy every day. Eventually she started to speak a little, but, she feared everything; loud noises, wet surfaces, plants, dry leaves, moist food, looking another person in the eyes. I forced her to do the things she feared over and over again. She cried, but, she never asked me to stop.

She started school at age three. She feared the bus ride and the new world at school. She cried but she never asked to stop. When all the kids were playing during the summer, Amanda was tutored. She never complained. When tutoring was over, she would run to get her favorite books to listen to me read. She was on a restrictive diet for food allergies and for her autism. She never asked for candy or soda, She ate broccoli and asparagus, even though she did not like them.
When she was held back in kindergarten, her solution was "Daddy I will try harder". When she failed first grade she said "Daddy I will try harder".
Amanda was diagnosed with epilepsy last December She said "Daddy help me beat epilepsy. I want to beat epilepsy." She was abducted in July 2008 and returned to me from another state in September 2008. She started school late. She was shaken by her abduction. The homework in second grade is so hard for her. When I asked her if she wanted to go back to first grade she said "No, I want to work harder". Even though she went through hell this summer, she is back at dance class, Girl Scouts and Church. She never complains, she never quits, she does whatever she is asked. She chides me when I curse at bad drivers. She makes me a better person. Amanda is my hero and I want to be just like her when I grow up.