By Diane and Tom Ledbetter
On Father’s Day, June 21st 1998 our son Thomas Gregory Ledbetter came home from the hospital. He had been born eight weeks earlier on April 23rd, almost 10½ weeks premature, weighing under three pounds and had spent those eight weeks in the NICU at Strong Hospital getting strong enough to come home.
We were finally able to bring him home on Father’s Day and it was the best the best present a father could ask for. That is until now. You see, Thomas’ life since has been anything but easy. He had developmental delays in almost every area and when he was just two years old he was diagnosed with Autism. Even though we started early with every possible therapy we could provide we were told not to expect much, that it would be very unlikely he would even be able to attend a regular school.
Thank God we didn’t accept that prognosis. His mom and I were determined to give Thomas every possible opportunity to succeed. I could go into great detail about the research we did and the struggles we had getting him into the programs we wanted but our struggles don’t compare to what we put that poor child though, because in the end Thomas was the one who did all the real work.
At the age of three he was admitted to a Stepping Stones Learning Center in Irondequoit where he worked very hard and as a result at five years old he was admitted into a general education kindergarten classroom at Perkins School in Newark. Academically he did very well in school; he was obedient, he loved to please and help others and his grades were always near the top of his class. But he had difficulty understanding social cues, did not make friends easily and he experienced bullying throughout elementary and middle school.
Although Thomas has had many challenges he has also had many successes and in high school he came into his own. He loved to create things and as a project in his Graphics Art class he decided to channel his negative experiences and feelings into positive graphic design by making an anti-bullying poster. The poster caught the eye of a local TV reporter and received national attention. It is even featured on the United States Department of Education website. He loves to write and when he was 15 he entered his first national writing contest with an essay titled “Why Education Matters”. To Thomas’ complete surprise he came in first in the country in his age group. But most of all Thomas loves to run. In his sophomore year he joined the track team and made friends who encouraged him to try new things outside his comfort zone.
Thomas just turned 18 and because of his hard work and perseverance he will graduate from High School on the 24th of June, with a Regent’s Diploma with Honors and a Math and Science Endorsement. He has been accepted by both Syracuse University and the University of Rochester but has decided to attend the University of Rochester this fall where he wants to major in both psychology and neuroscience so that he can help children with neurological differences. He was awarded the Horatio Alger New York Scholarship, the Xerox Scholarship for Innovation and Information Technology and several other scholarships, all of which will help him pursue his college career and give him the ability to do what he wants most, to help others.
All of this from a child who we were told not to expect very much from! Thank God we didn’t listen and give up on him and thank God he didn’t give up on himself.
Truly he was and continues to be “The VERY Best Present” a father or mother could ever receive.
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