Love Only Has One Color

BY TINA V. BRYSON

Help came in the nick of time. Just three days after the freshman class at St. Anne’s-Belfield School completed a 68-foot ramp at the home of Judy Stevens, it was needed to get her son Kenneth to an ambulance.

The home, built in a holler, had concrete steps in the back which already made access to the house precarious, but as Kenneth’s mobility began to deteriorate, Stevens knew she had to do something to help her son. So, she did what she always does, she prayed.

“I don’t know what I would have done without that ramp,” said Stevens, recalling her son’s emergency following the week of volunteer assistance provided by teens from Charlottesville, Virginia. “I prayed, ‘God, give me a ramp.’ God had to be a part of it. These children, I consider them one of the greatest blessings in my life.”

Kenneth was born in 1959, totally blind, and with a range of other lifelong health issues. But he also had a mother that championed his right to a quality, public education and became an advocate for children and adults with special needs in the community.

“I had friends who were concerned about my situation. They wanted to help since there were years that I had to take Kenneth to specialists in Louisville, Lexington, Huntington, and Charleston,” noted Stevens. “I had to get him the help he needed. Everything I did, I did for him. I fought for him.”

After Stevens lost her husband, she continued to provide care for Kenneth, but knew that access in and out of the house would continue to present a challenge. Any time the ambulance had to be called there just wasn’t enough space to maneuver around the side of the house, and the concrete steps became an increasing obstacle.

“Kenneth’s mobility and coordination are mostly gone. He’s over 300 pounds. As he has aged, and I have aged, there is a fear around what will happen,” she said. “Sometimes he can’t get out of the bed even to eat. He has an extra-large wheelchair, but it’s hard to lift him.”

Before the new ramp was installed, the old ramp had decayed and was so compromised that they had to tear it down. He still sees several specialists for regular doctor visits and the ramp has been transformational.

Before a ramp was added to the back of Judy Stevens’s home, the steps made access to the home precarious. As her son’s mobility began to deteriorate, she knew something needed to be done to help him.

“The children that built this ramp for us were remarkable. Everyone with CAP and the students we bonded like family,” Stevens noted. “These children were from different cultures, some black and some white, but they all had the same heart. Why can’t it be that way in the world? Jesus was the essence of mercy and love. They showed that. Love only has one color.”

Stevens is grateful for her son, her advocacy for children and adults with special needs, the mission of CAP, and the students who made a difference for her family. “Kenneth wasn’t supposed to live past 5 years old. I asked them to remember his name when they pray,” she recalled. “They invested in a mother taking care of her son. I have an overwhelming appreciation for them. I want them to remember Kenneth and think about how they will help the other Kenneths in the world. They took something away from this that will motivate a lot of them to continue this work.”

See the original story in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of The Mountain Spirit.

Students from St. Anne’s-Belfield School built a 68-foot ramp for Judy Stevens’s home during YouthFest in 2018. Since then the ramp has been transformational in making the home accessible for her son, Kenneth.