A Story of Love, Hope
Reported by Erik Smith
Web produced by Christiana Ciolac

The Kirk in the Hills Presbytarian Church in Bloomfield Hills Video

A special couple in our area has overcome physical challenges to share a life of love, hope and happiness.

It was a couple days after Christmas when Laurie McCormick sat down and began to write her letter to Erik Smith.

Laurie e-mailed a letter to Channel 7 about her extraordinary parents.

"Dear Erik," she wrote, "I would like to make you aware of two very special people. They are both physically challenged due to birth defects.

One has cerebral palsy and the other spina bifida and has been confined a wheelchair for years.

The life they have led is extraordinary to say the least and should truly be an inspiration to others. Oh, by the way, Erik, they happen to be my parents, Dick and Jeanne of Lake Orion, Michigan."

"I've always wanted to do this for them. They have led such normal lives, even though they have had so many challenges and difficulties to overcome. They have not let it get in their way. If there is something in their way they go around it. They make some way to accomplish what they want," Laurie said.

Dick and Jeanne were married 43 years ago.

She went on to write in her letter, "My parents have been married for 43 years. Each dealing with all the trials and tribulations that life has dealt them. My father worked as the Oakland County law librarian for 35 years while my mother was busy raising one very active, normal daughter.

They have lived and cared for a home that was custom built for my mother's wheelchair 37 years ago. I'm not just telling you this because they are my parents, but because they are a real inspiration to all who cross their paths."

"It makes me feel really proud to have such people in my life and they are truly an inspiration. When I have a bad day, I call her and I hear what she's dealt with and it's like mine wasn't quite so bad," Laurie said.

The letter from Laurie did not stop there. She wrote, "There is so much more I could say. One of their Christmas presents this year to each other was a set of two-way radios so they could talk to each other as they go shopping at a local mall, each in their own power wheelchair. This is just one more way they have found to live as normal lives as possible."

What's life been like for the past 43 years? This is a love story here.

"It's been great. We do what everybody else does. We live and we work and we have our family, our holidays. Just great," Dick said.

Jeanne and Rich

"I think that our combination has worked well, because of my inability to do the walking and the leg work so much, while Dick has been able to take care of that, where his arms and his manual dexterity of his hands and so on, why I can do that. He does the legs and I do the arms and so we get along fine. We're one entity together," Jean said.

Laurie finished up her letter as most of us would. "Mr. Smith, thank you for reading all of this. I hope I haven't wasted your time. Happy holidays. Laurie McCormick."

Dick, Jeanne and Laurie at the mall

"I haven't really answered her, yet, but maybe something like this would do. 'No, you didn't waste our time, Laurie. Thanks so very much for writing,'" Erik Smith said.

"Don't let anything stop you you and just sit back and just let life pass you by, because you can't do something one day. There is no excuse. Get up and do it and live."

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