BY ROGER MOONEY
PLANT CITY – Lilly Bowden flipped through her sketchpad and proudly displayed her work.
There is a fox on one page and a cat on another. A giraffe from the neck up and a mountain range in all its purple majesty. A drawing starts on one side of the page and ends on the other, forming a U. A snake? An eel?
“I have no idea what it is,” Lilly said.
More pages, more drawings. an armadillo. A seahorse. A sea shell. A leaf. One page has a pineapple, a watermelon, and some grapes.
“It’s a still life,” said Lilly. “Something abstract.”
Lilly, 12, wants to be an artist, and is taking her first steps with the “Drawing Lessons for Beginners” DVD purchased with her Education Savings Account (ESA) that comes with the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Uniquely Abilities (FES-UA). Managed by Step Up For Students, ESA offers parents the ability to personalize the educational needs of their children. The money can be used for curricular and educational materials, therapies and medical specialists, tutors and tuition at private schools.
“The scholarship has been a blessing to us,” says Debbie Bowden, Lilly’s grandmother and legal guardian.
Lilly was born with pulmonary atresia with a ventricular septal defect, a congenital heart disease that left her with one functional ventricle. She has undergone three heart reconstruction operations, one a year for three years, since she was one year old.
At the age of 5, a blood clot caused a stroke that left him immobile in his right arm and hand.
He has a pacemaker.
She has scoliosis and wears a brace 20 hours a day.
He has multiple allergies.
Due to the weakening of Lily’s heart, a small cold can turn into pneumonia and land her in the hospital for two weeks. A growth spurt could overtax her heart and be deadly, Debbie says.
“With Lilly, we take it one day at a time. Despite everything she’s got, she’s still a fighter. She’s lived so much longer than they ever thought she would,” Debbie said.
Among the many doctors Lily sees regularly are a cardiologist, two neurologists, an orthopedic surgeon (for her back), and a pediatrician.
Lilly is hospitalized and homeschooled. Debbie is her teacher and works with a curriculum purchased through ESA from Lilly.
“I can get all the school supplies I need. Everything,” says Debbie.
A computer and printer for homework. English, history, science and math books. A telescope to study the night sky. A microscope for science projects. A protractor and a compass because math is going to get interesting.
The videos Lilly watches to hone her drawing and tracing skills.
“We couldn’t afford all that,” says Debbie, who lives with her husband, Chris, and Lilly in a comfortable Plant City mobile home park bordered in back by ponds and a lake.
There is plenty of wildlife for Lilly to observe and draw, including snakes, the occasional alligator, and a duck that laid eggs under a bush out back.
Lilly’s life began in a small town in Texas, located 50 kilometers from Dallas. Her biological parents lost parental rights due to neglect and her grandparents became her legal guardians in 2018. They moved to Plant City in 2020 to escape allergies that prevented Lilly from spending much time outdoors free. Chief among these is a tumbleweed allergy, something Lilly doesn’t find in Florida.
When asked what she likes about living in Plant City, Lilly replied, “That I get to go out more than in Texas. Plus, I don’t have to be in the hospital.”
Lilly was struggling at her district school in Texas. Her long stays in her hospital caused her to fall behind in her classes, leaving her two years behind her course. Debbie and Chris thought about sending her to a district school when they moved to Plant City, but they weren’t comfortable with the accelerated learning plan the administrators wanted for Lilly so she could catch up with her grade.
Debbie found out about FES-UA through Lilly’s teacher. Debbie chose to homeschool because the scholarship allows her to accommodate Lilly’s education. They can move at Lilly’s pace and spend more time on a lesson until Lilly learns it. She is now learning at a fifth and sixth grade level.
“He’s come a long way,” Debbie says. “She gets excited. At her old school she didn’t get excited. I challenge her when it comes to school. I challenge her to learn as much as she can.”
Lilly loves to sing and listen to Christian music on the clock radio in her bedroom. Her favorite TV show is the early 70’s sitcom, “The Partridge Family.” Danny Partridge is her favorite. Her favorite movie is “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.”
He enjoys going to church on Sundays and spending time with the 2 and 3 year olds during Sunday School.
“If someone cries, I comfort them,” says Lilly. “I’m good at it.”
“She’s a very good comforter,” Debbie said. “It’s always been that way. If you give him a lot of love, he returns it twice as much.”
Chris comes home from his job as a locksmith in the late afternoon to be greeted by his granddaughter, eager to tell him what she’s learned or show him her latest drawing.
“We have an interesting life with her,” says Debbie. “It’s been an interesting journey. Every day she teaches us something new.
“When you think about everything she’s been through, she’s a fighter. When we bought her, we were told we’d wake up one morning and she’d be gone. She’s an inspiration. She doesn’t let anything stop her. If there’s something she wants to do, we try it.” and see how it goes.”
Roger Mooney, Director of Communications, can be reached at rmooney@sufs.org.
