Lives We’ve Touched
Against all Odds
Born in 1963 with a defective heart, Robert underwent surgery
at a tender three months of age. He was later diagnosed with
mental retardation, “a touch of autism,” and severe mental
illness, quite possibly as a result of heart damage and the
trauma of surgery to correct it.
By the time Robert was 19, his family was no longer able to care for him, he had been placed in a state-operated institution for people with mental retardation. And there he remained for 24 years.
But Robert’s family wanted him to have a chance at a more normal life and they began pursuing affordable, community-based housing options. Robert would need a home of his own with space for full-time caregivers and special fittings such as shatter-proof glass fixtures. To find such a home and ensure its affordability on Robert’s disability income seemed highly unlikely.
But this time things were about to turn in Robert’s favor. The Foundation For the Challenged, through its national affordable-housing partner, learned of the case and purchased a home for Robert to rent and live in. The Foundation also helped seek other sources of funding that brought the home within Robert’s reach.
Today Robert lives in an attractive, well kept home in a suburban neighborhood of Nashville. Robert’s caregivers report he takes pride in his home—something they were not sure that he would be developmentally capable of. “Putting people with disabilities back in the community gives them a semblance of a normal life,” says Fran Wesseling of the Foundation For the Challenged. “This opens the opportunity and blessing of normal emotional experiences.”