Michael’s Miracles
Learning Life’s Lessons
Six-year-old Michael Portwood has life all figured out.
From his mother Ramona, who works full time, attends college part time and raises four children on her own, he’s learned that education, hard work and self-reliance are the building blocks of a successful life.
From his teachers and therapists at UCP, Michael knows miracles come one step at a time, in small increments, but are well worth the effort.
From Christian Leadership Concepts, a group of men, some of whom he’s never met who bought him an adaptive bicycle, Michael has seen first-hand that heroes are among us.
And, from his surgeons and nurses at Tampa Shriners Hospital, Michael learned that friends can often be found in unexpected places.
But there’s one life lesson Michael Portwood discovered all by himself: that sometimes laughter is the best medicine.
Many people remember him from the UCP video as the little boy who told Harvey Massey he had a big nose. No one laughed harder than Massey, who was that year’s Jack Holloway Star of Gratitude honoree.
And Michael’s plan to have a little fun with his teacher recently resulted in a series of serious conferences with the grown-ups trying to figure out why he kept falling down. Ramona finally just asked Michael what was going on.
“Mom, you should see the teacher’s face when I fall- it’s hilarious,” he said.
“I had to warn the teacher that Michael like to have a good time, and he can be a little manipulative to unsuspecting adults,” Ramona said.
Adults don’t usually mind when they discover they’ve been had. After all, no one deserves to have fun more than Michael. He’s been working all of his life to achieve what comes effortlessly to most children.
Ramona knew shortly after his birth that something was wrong, but all of the tests performed on Michael were normal. The pediatrician encouraged her to give Michael more time.
“He wasn’t doing things his older siblings had done at his age, and that worried me even though I know children develop at different rates,” Ramona said.
Finally, when Michael was about 2, a doctor handed Ramona a yellow post-it note with the words “hyperspastic bilateral legs” written on it. The doctor said “I’m so very sorry,” and left the exam room.
“It was 20 minutes before I could even look at the paper to see what she’d written. I felt a cold, dark fear,” Ramona said.
She went to the library to learn more, and the yellow pages listing led her to UCP’s Holloway Center, and to family services specialist Jack Grattan.
“From the minute I talked to Jack, everything began to get better. And, I had pretty much given up hope at that point.”
At 2, Michael could barely talk and his siblings did most everything for him. At UCP, he was expected to learn skills that would lead him to independence.
“So many things happened at once,” Ramona said. “UCP told us about Stepping Stones, and we got Michael braces and a walker. We got a wheelchair from Shriners and after three or four months Michael looked at me and said, ‘I love you.’ His progress was unbelievable. He loved coming to UCP and didn’t want to leave.”
Michael graduated from UCP in 2002 but continues to receive occupational, physical and speech therapy after school. He attends a regular kindergarten class at Riverside Elementary School with his siblings.
“I felt really strongly that I wanted Michael around regular kids because I want him to believe h e can do anything he sees other kids doing. I know there are things Michael cannot do, but I always tell him to try, to find out for himself. I want Michael to always test his limits and to grow up to be an independent adult.”
Michael was on his way to learning to walk when life threw him another curve ball.
“The tendons in his legs began constricting, not growing with the bones,” His torso began curling and he had to go back to his wheelchair.”
The problem had to be surgically corrected, and this summer, Michael went to Shriner’s Children’s Hospital in Tampa. After the operation, he had to learn to walk all over again.
When he came home, his therapy at UCP resumed with even more intensity than before.
“Michael is determined to walk independently, no matter what it takes,” Ramona said. “He watches his brother and sisters ride bikes and skateboards, and wants to do the same things, and I encourage him to try.”
“UCP has taught me to never stop thinking about the possibilities, and that’s what I want to instill in all of my children. When I die, I want to know I’ve given them the skills they need to be independent, self-reliant and responsible citizens.”
On December 2, Michael took a break from his work to join the generous men and women who have been with him in spirit every step of the way at UCP’s annual Faces Behind the Miracles Fundraising Breakfast. His story was told in a video, “One Child…One Family…One Step at a Time,” produced by another hero, Ed Bookbinder and Visual Impact Communications, shown for the first time at the breakfast.
The more than 500 UCP friends that morning donated over $138,000, demonstrating to Michael one of the most important lessons of all: generosity has the power to change the world.
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