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FOR the first few years of his life, Jonathan Weeks did not have much going for him and even less to look forward to.

Abandoned at an early age by his mother while running a high fever that worsened his existing brain damage, Jonathan was placed in the Woodside Special Care Centre for the profoundly mentally handicapped ? a home where he was expected to live out his life.

Hardly able to speak and with his eyesight worsening by the year, Jonathan would drag his little frame around the wards, seemingly in search of something. At age four he found it.

"I was working at Woodside as a bookkeeper when Jonathan first introduced himself 12 years ago. He was four years old and, though classified as profoundly handicapped and almost completely blind, he never seemed to have trouble fin?ding me.

"The nurses were always chasing him out of my office. I guess he somehow took a liking to me," says Garnet Weeks, a well-known resident of Muizenberg.

Over the next eight years, as their relationship and Garnet's involvement in Jonathan's life grew, she started noticing changes in him.

"The things I saw made me think he had more potential than people thought, which is not something that Woodside is equipped to deve?lop.

"When we first met, he couldn't even eat an apple without it being cooked. Speaking was hardly a possibility and getting around was a slow process as he had to drag his right-hand side behind him.

"We were spending more and more time together and I would challenge him to do more than what people expected of him. He respon?ded well to the attention and discipline. When he started speaking, however, we knew he had to place him in a more normal school," Garnet says.

After months of failed attempts to do so, Garnet had to re-evaluate her plans.

"Schools just would not take a child from Woodside as they are viewed as too badly handicapped. So when Jonathan was 12, I decided to leave the facility and started adoption procedures so I could take Jonathan with me.

"No-one seemed to have a problem with that and today I am his legal guardian," Garnet says. Now aged 17, Jonathan and Garnet share a home in Rhodesia Road, Muizenberg and Jonathan has grown into a young man his previous carers might well not recognise.

"He could be mistaken for a typical teenager if it were not for his nice manners and gentle spirit," Garnet laughs while proudly loo?king at her boy.

"His mobility, motor skills and comprehension have very much improved.

"He dresses and grooms himself, understands everything I say and can definitely make his needs known to me.

"He loves listening to the radio and playing with his scooter and, until it broke, loved riding the tricycle I got him," Garnet says.

But it is surely the fact that Jonathan is now a hostel resident at the Athlone School for the Blind, a school similar to those that denied him entry in the past, that is the greatest indication of his improvement under Garnet's loving care.

"It shows more than anything how much chance Jonathan has a to live a normal life, which is my greatest wish for him.

"I want him to be able to develop his full potential, and there is now an opportunity at our door that can make this possible," Garnet says.

UK-based therapist, Linda Scotson, has developed a series of exercises for young people which, in essence, help the healthy part of the brain to take over the functions of the damaged part.

"The technique has won world-wide acclaim and she will be visi?ting the Mountainview Baptist Church in Lakeside on 17 July," says Garnet.

"The assessment and subsequent therapy costs R3 800, which is way out of my financial range, but,as I believe it to be a real chance for my son to have a normal life, I am as?king for help," Garnet says.

Pastor Kevin Danes has made the church?s bank account available to prospective donors and people able to help are requested to transfer their donations to:

Mountain View Baptist Church, Standard Bank Blue Route Mall, Sort Code 025609, account number 2700 929 43. Please specify that the donation is for "Jonathan's Fund" when making a transfer.

Garnet Weeks can be contacted on 082 390 0992 or e-mailed at the address: garnetc@telkomsa.net.

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