Jeremy was born on October 15th 1974 without a rectum. He had to have surgery within 24 hours or he would have died. I was given the option of surgery, or letting him starve to death. I said, "That's an option?" I was told it was. I chose surgery, anything to keep him alive. He had a colostomy for the first three months of his life. On January 12th he had surgery to make him a new rectum. It worked, but three times that night he stopped breathing and three times they brought him back to life again. He was to go home in 12 days, but instead he remained in the hospital, fighting for his life, until the 28th of February. He had enough of doctors and nurses and he wanted to come home. When he got home he was so sick I thought we were going to lose him again. It was a good thing I had a doctor's appointment. The nurses were supposed to dilate him every day to keep the new rectum open, but they had not done that so it had grown back shut. When the doctor put that tube in to break the opening and dilate him, Jeremy screamed and the doctor removed it. When he did the blood and bm hit the ceiling and the doctor's white coat was no longer white.

That wasn't the end of things, all his life he struggled with going like the rest of us do, but I didn't mind doing what I had to to keep him alive. When I'd bring him back to the doctor one of the first things he would ask is, "Is he happy?" For the first 12 years I could truly say he was happy. That was important. A person can go through a whole lot in life if they have a positive outlook. Jeremy loved everything about life.

One day we went to a Pro-life meeting and after the meeting Jeremy went up to the speaker and said he wanted him to meet the most important person in his life, namely me. When the speaker asked him why I was important to him he said, "Because she could have chosen to abort me, but she chose to let me live." I never thought that even entered his mind, but it had and it made me feel so lucky to have a son like Jeremy.