Tom Griesan is a colleague who I have known and worked with for years. One of his daughters (not Lily) was in my Abigail's class in grade school, and we often saw Jean Griesan, Tom's lovely wife, at school and neighborhood events pushing a "triplet stroller" with the fraternal twins (including Lily) and another young one. Sometime during or shortly after that, while Lily was very young, she was in a horrendous accident, with brain injury and lots of pain. A teenager (who I believe did not even have his license yet) was speeding down an alley and hit Lily.
She almost died, and has struggled since. She missed her high school graduation, and medical staff, who have cared for Lily for years, devised a private "graduation" ceremony... The story details are here:
I do so hope that the "/today" to be found in the URL above does not mean the this URL will become invalid after some short time. Wix (my current "free website" provider) would make it difficult to reproduce all the pictures and story here. I will try to at least c/p the top picture.
<quoting the article>
All Lily Griesan wanted to do was to take part in her Coronado High School graduation ceremony.
For many young people, the rite of passage is taken for granted. But not for Lily. Her graduation day was salvaged by a cast of caretakers at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central.
A traumatic brain injury left Lily with difficulty speaking, near constant pain and mobility challenges. She worked hard to pass classes and meet requirements at her west side Colorado Springs school. Then, there was the pandemic that cancelled in-person ceremonies and then moved them in to a football stadium with limited wheelchair access.
Finally, there was the infection that landed her at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central, writhing in pain.
It was the same hometown hospital where she’d spent weeks following a bicycle-car accident a dozen years earlier. Her parents, Tom and Jean Griesan, split shifts caring for Lily in the hospital and their four other daughters, including Lily’s fraternal twin, Valerie, at home.
As the rescheduled graduation day arrived, Lily got the news. She was too sick to leave the hospital.
“She was upset – really upset – about missing graduation,” said Jean Griesan, Lily’s mother. “I think any child would be unhappy but her brain injury amplifies things. As a parent, seeing your child hurting hurts you, too.”
Lily’s care team led by neurosurgeon Dr. Sean McKisic wrestled the infection, performing surgery and starting Lily on strong antibiotics. But they didn’t stop there. Physician Assistant Madeline Lusk prepared a suitable-for-framing graduation certificate, complete with Lily’s name in script and an official looking seal. She also queued “Pomp and Circumstance” on her cell phone and gathered staff to celebrate Lily’s accomplishment. As McKisic conferred the mock degree, Lily was showered with claps and kudos.
“It was an amazing act of kindness,” Jean Griesan said. “Dr. McKisic gave a wonderful speech that was genuine and heartfelt.”
For McKisic, celebrating Lily was an easy decision.
“It was very important to me to make sure her graduation was as special as it could be given the situation,” McKisic said.
<end-quoting the article>
Another of Tom and Jean's brood of talented and beautiful kids has graduated college and has begun medical school... And Lily continues to be a story of life-affirming courage and grace in the face of pain and devastation that can never be completely "cured". She is an inspiration to us all, and a moving tribute to the ability of her parents to produce the future by raising exemplary, wonderful children.
Tom and Jean are quietly but truly heroes of our new century, as are untold millions of folks who are simply living their lives, doing what is best as they see it, and making our future bright with admirable progeny, like Lily.