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Today's Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School graduation will be a special occasion for all the graduates and their families. However, it will mark an extra special accomplishment for graduating senior Jerome "Jay" Green.

The diploma Jay receives today will be a crowning achievement for a young man whose life has been full of struggle since the beginning.

Jay was born three months premature to a mother who abused drugs during pregnancy. He spent the first three months of his life in the neonatal clinic in Columbia and soon after went into foster care with a family in Columbia.

The family provided a home to other special needs children as well on a temporary basis until they could be placed in permanent homes. Jay stayed under that family's care until he was 11 months old.

As a registered foster parent, Rachel Green of Orangeburg went to Columbia seeking a child she could help. After being made aware that Jay was special needs and would need extra attention, Green agreed to take him in. He was not thriving in his current environment, and Green thought she would be able to give him the support he needed to develop.

"When she got him, he was a year old," said Audrey Riley, Jay's sister. "He couldn't sit up. When you sat him on the floor, he would just fall over. He was very delayed. No motor skills, no nothing. Doctors said he would not learn, never walk, or talk."

Jay was also on a great deal of medication, and he had trouble keeping food down, Riley said.

"She (Green) had to deal with a lot of stuff, but she kept on," Riley said. "She started teaching him and working with him and taking him to therapy. She did everything she could possibly do to give him a fighting chance."

Even the school system tried to put him in remedial classes because he was delayed, Riley said, but Green would say, "No, you're not going to label him. I'll just work harder."

With his mother's determination, Jay learned how to walk at 2-1/2 and started saying small words when they didn't think he would ever talk.

Riley recalled passing a Food Lion store and hearing Jay say "Food Lion" from the backseat.

"We almost went crazy because we said, 'If he can do that, he can learn to talk,'" she said.

Now, at 17, getting ready to graduate, and it's because their mother wouldn't take "no" for an answer, Riley said.

That same woman who wouldn't take "no" for an answer is now facing struggles all her own. Green, recovering from a stroke, has been in the hospital off and on for a year, Riley said.

With only Riley and Jay to take care of her, Riley said Jay has been selflessly going to school and staying with her all night in the hospital. Jay packs a bag, goes the hospital at 8:30 p.m. and stays until it's time for school the next morning, she said.

"I think that's very commendable because most young people would not do that," Riley said. "I guess because of the love and obligation and knowing what all she's done for him, he's been so willing to do that."

Juggling his school work and taking care of his mother has been hard, but Jay said it's the least he can do for the woman who helped him get over so many hurdles in life.

"When I was sick, she took the time to take care of me, so I think it's only right that I return the favor," Jay said.

Jay's mother always encouraged him to stay in school and graduate, so his accomplishment is for her as well.

"I'm just happy for him getting ready to make that move, and I'm proud of him for being the person that he is that he loves her enough that he doesn't want to see anything happen to her," Riley said.

Jay said he is looking forward to graduation, but the hardest part is not knowing if his mother will make it to the ceremony.

After graduation, Jay said he wants to get a job for the summer and enroll in South Carolina State University or Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College in the fall to study psychology.

T&D Features Writer Candace Newson can be reached by e-mail at cnewson@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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