Brady Stratton may be the only 21 year old who still eats baby food. She is living with Trisomy 18 which restricts her speech so that she can’t tell her family when she’s feeling sick or if something hurts; she can’t even get to the next room by herself.Dark-haired, brown-eyed Brady’s favorite baby food flavor is bananas and strawberries. When it’s sophomore Corinne Stratton’s turn to feed her, giving her this flavor always makes the job go a little bit faster since she won’t stick her tongue out and refuse it like she would with the others.
Corinne straps on Brady’s blue bib, twists the lid off the jar and scoops out a spoonful. She then helps open Brady’s mouth, slides the spoon in and waits until she swallows. She then turns her attention the the TV and watches “The Office” for a few minutes until Brady has burped; if she tries to feed her before that, she’ll throw up. Corinne repeats until an hour has passed and there isn’t a scrap left in the jar.
Trisomy 18, or Edward’s Syndrome, is a genetic disorder that causes complete dependency on other people to take care of them. People living with Trisomy 18 cannot speak for themselves, feed themselves or even walk. According to PubMed Health, 50 percent of children born with this disease don’t make it past their first week, and those who do make it to teenage years live with serious medical conditions and developmental problems, rarely making it to adulthood.
In the Stratton family’s eyes, this makes Brady a miracle.
“I kind of started preparing [to lose Brady,] but that was just hard because it was when we were after delivery, and you know a mom is so emotional,” Kim Stratton, Corinne and Brady’s mother, said. “It was an older man doctor. He said, ‘you need to prepare yourself because she’s not going to live past a couple weeks’ so it was very emotional. It made me thankful that we had her.”
Brady was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 three days before she was born. According to Kim, doctors had seen small red flags throughout the pregnancy, such as an abnormal amount of fluid in the womb and low weight of the fetus, but were only able to confirm the diagnosis near the end of the pregnancy due to lack of medical technology during that time.
“We got our emotions out that day of course,” Kim said. “It was nice to be able to have that time before she came. I’ve heard [stories about] other Trisomy 18s who didn’t know the results [prior.] So we just had our cries.”
Despite their five year age difference, Corinne has always felt like the older sister. During childhood, she was often jealous of the amount of attention Brady received. Corinne was especially resentful when Brady got to share a bed with Kim, who decided she needed to be with her in case Brady had a seizure. As Corinne grew up, those feelings of jealousy began to fade, and she began to warm up to Brady.
Corinne even babysits, which doesn’t take much more than just sitting in the same room with her to keep an eye on her. When in the mood, Corinne will play music from “High School Musical” and dance around Brady in the living room to get her to laugh.
“I guess it doesn’t seem like she’s an older sister really. It’s like taking care of a little sister, or even a baby,” Corinne said. “You have to feed her and she can’t get dressed on her own, so you have to do everything for her because she doesn’t understand.”
Taking on the role of Brady’s favorite babysitter has come with its benefits, according to Corinne. She has evolved into a much more nurturing and empathetic person because of having Brady in her life.
“It’s easy to see how much she loves us,” Corinne said. “She gives us hugs and shows us how she loves us and that’s taught me a lot of care. I know I can be more caring because of her. I think [what I’ve learned from taking care of her] does make me a more caring person because I’ve known how to do that.”
Without Brady, the Strattons know they would be a completely different family. Brady has brought them together, especially with the responsibility of caring for her. The Strattons switch off responsibilities with Brady like feeding, waking her up and putting her to bed, and dressing her. By seeing the way Brady lives happily, though it may not be like most people do, she has taught them to keep a wide perspective on certain things in life, have empathy, especially for families in similar situations, and humility.
“We wouldn’t be the same family if we didn’t have [Brady,]” Kim said. “When you’re down and depressed, she helps us look at life with gratitude. I think we’re more nurturing, definitely a nurturing family.”
With their very structured schedule, everyday life for the Strattons is quite a bit different from typical families. Feeding Brady takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, and she needs to be put sleep at certain times everyday, or else she’ll get cranky and start screaming. This restricts them from doing things in public very often, like going out for dinner together or taking vacations.
“[The worst part is] not being able to go as a family all together just out,” Kim said. “She can’t regulate her body temp, so with certain weather we can’t take her out. So, because of her needs, we have to sacrifice our wants a lot of times. So I think that’s taught us about our faith.”
After Brady was born, each of them were tested for being carriers of Trisomy 18 and both Brad and Kim turned out negative. For this reason, during Brady’s first few years, they began to question their faith and grew farther away from God.
“My parents, I’m sure Brad’s parents too, they were kind of doubting God,” Kim said. “So I remember talking to my mom and they were questioning God, like ‘why is this happening to us?’ It kind of made me think that I wasn’t the only one [thinking that].”
After just a few years of living with Brady, the Strattons had a change of heart. They began to realize the value of having Brady in their lives and how much of a blessing she was. They began to notice little things, like how, despite her disability, Brady knows who her family is. When she sees someone she recognizes as her family, Brady will reach her arms out and pull them close to her and a big grin spreads across her face. Even when her family’s car pulls into her driveway she’ll start laughing happily because she knows that she is home.
“Over the years, I really feel like our families have seen why God blessed us with her and how she is like a gift that he gave us,” Kim said. “She has a purpose in our life, and I feel like she has brought us closer to God. I don’t know if we would be the same person if we did not have her. She brings so much unconditional love.”
Brady has specifically taught Corinne how to have strong faith and to be thankful for each day she gets to spend with Brady.
“There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with [Brady],” Corinne said. “And my faith would definitely be different if I didn’t have that to really be thankful for, like God chose us to take care of her and have that really big responsibility.”
For now, the Strattons are looking at every day they get to spend with Brady as a blessing and not something that they just have to deal with.
“Corinne used the word ‘gift,’ and we’ve always looked at it that way,” Brad said. “But it’s a gift with responsibilities. The best gifts are the ones that are truly unique, but in this case the uniqueness comes with responsibility of caring for her.”
Update: Brady Stratton passed away with her family by her side on Feb. 19, 2014 due to complications of pneumonia. Brady’s obituary can be viewed here.
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