Building a room of 'suite' dreams
Joy Pavelski
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: News
The Somerville sisters share clothes, wide smiles, a wiry frame and an obsession with sports. Together, the family cheers on the North Carolina Tarheels basketball team.
Katherine Somerville has posters of players Nos. 34 and 41 plastered neatly inside a cabinet in her bedroom.
Mary and Liz Somerville run for the Hillsdale Academy track and cross country team and, though traveling with Kath's wheelchair can be difficult, the Somerville family still manages to make meets.
"The situation is a lot of hard work," said Karen Somerville, Katherine's mother. "My husband and I are tired every day, but Kath has an incredible spirit and sense of humor. No matter how tired we are, she can make us laugh."
Katherine has cerebral palsy, a condition caused by damaged motor control centers in a young, developing brain. A Michigan non-profit organization called the Suite Dreams Project will remodel her bedroom by Christmas.
Suite Dreams raises money and volunteers to remake bedrooms for seriously ill or disabled children in Michigan.
Eighteen years ago, Kath was born the middle child of triplets to Associate Professor of English John Somerville and his wife, Karen. She and her sisters were born 10 weeks early in a North Carolinian hospital near UN-Chapel Hill, where John was studying in graduate school. Mary and Liz were in the neonatal care unit for about 10 weeks.
Katherine couldn't come home for 11 months.
Now, the three young women are high school seniors. When Mary and Liz leave for college next year, Katherine will stay home. Kath said her new room will help her feel not as alone when her sisters leave.
"I'll miss them," she said. "Definitely."
The Suite Dreams board of directors usually reviews and selects applications from families of seriously ill or disabled children through hospital staff recommendations in the Jackson, Mich., and Detroit areas. In this instance, however, Somerville family friend Trish Ross had been a Suite Dreams volunteer since 2001, and encouraged the Somervilles to apply themselves.
Once the Somervilles' application was accepted, Ross took the happy task of organizing fundraisers for Katherine's bedroom.
Bowling and a silent auction raised more than $4,000 to begin the project. Local businesses like the Hillsdale Gathering, Meyers Diamond Center, the ChicagoWater Grill and Marcella's donated door prizes and silent auction items. Ross said people the Somervilles hardly knew walked in and donated money.
"It was pretty easy raising funds for Katherine," Ross said. "Everyone was so excited about it. So many people just love the Somerville family."
People with CP have a hard time controlling their muscles, so they may seem clumsy and stiff.
They may have a hard time moving, sitting up, talking and eating.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2003 that CP is the second most expensive developmental disability, at an average lifetime cost per person of $921,000.
Kath cannot hold a book or walk, though she can read and speak just fine. She has many friends at Hillsdale College from the Best Buddies program, sometimes visits The Suites to hang out with junior Jessica Montgomery, and volunteers every week at Mary Randall Preschool with senior Jessica Gannon.
Though Kath said she considered having her room painted Carolina Blue, she finally decided on pink as the main color, with white furniture. She will have a new bed: raised like a hospital bed so she can be gotten in and out more easily, but styled like real furniture rather than sterile hospital furniture.
"Never in my life would I have thought, before Katherine, that I would want a child who has gone through so much," John said. "Every minute mattered. I would never want to go through it again, but it makes you realize how life is precious."
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
Katherine Somerville has posters of players Nos. 34 and 41 plastered neatly inside a cabinet in her bedroom.
Mary and Liz Somerville run for the Hillsdale Academy track and cross country team and, though traveling with Kath's wheelchair can be difficult, the Somerville family still manages to make meets.
"The situation is a lot of hard work," said Karen Somerville, Katherine's mother. "My husband and I are tired every day, but Kath has an incredible spirit and sense of humor. No matter how tired we are, she can make us laugh."
Katherine has cerebral palsy, a condition caused by damaged motor control centers in a young, developing brain. A Michigan non-profit organization called the Suite Dreams Project will remodel her bedroom by Christmas.
Suite Dreams raises money and volunteers to remake bedrooms for seriously ill or disabled children in Michigan.
Eighteen years ago, Kath was born the middle child of triplets to Associate Professor of English John Somerville and his wife, Karen. She and her sisters were born 10 weeks early in a North Carolinian hospital near UN-Chapel Hill, where John was studying in graduate school. Mary and Liz were in the neonatal care unit for about 10 weeks.
Katherine couldn't come home for 11 months.
Now, the three young women are high school seniors. When Mary and Liz leave for college next year, Katherine will stay home. Kath said her new room will help her feel not as alone when her sisters leave.
"I'll miss them," she said. "Definitely."
The Suite Dreams board of directors usually reviews and selects applications from families of seriously ill or disabled children through hospital staff recommendations in the Jackson, Mich., and Detroit areas. In this instance, however, Somerville family friend Trish Ross had been a Suite Dreams volunteer since 2001, and encouraged the Somervilles to apply themselves.
Once the Somervilles' application was accepted, Ross took the happy task of organizing fundraisers for Katherine's bedroom.
Bowling and a silent auction raised more than $4,000 to begin the project. Local businesses like the Hillsdale Gathering, Meyers Diamond Center, the ChicagoWater Grill and Marcella's donated door prizes and silent auction items. Ross said people the Somervilles hardly knew walked in and donated money.
"It was pretty easy raising funds for Katherine," Ross said. "Everyone was so excited about it. So many people just love the Somerville family."
People with CP have a hard time controlling their muscles, so they may seem clumsy and stiff.
They may have a hard time moving, sitting up, talking and eating.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2003 that CP is the second most expensive developmental disability, at an average lifetime cost per person of $921,000.
Kath cannot hold a book or walk, though she can read and speak just fine. She has many friends at Hillsdale College from the Best Buddies program, sometimes visits The Suites to hang out with junior Jessica Montgomery, and volunteers every week at Mary Randall Preschool with senior Jessica Gannon.
Though Kath said she considered having her room painted Carolina Blue, she finally decided on pink as the main color, with white furniture. She will have a new bed: raised like a hospital bed so she can be gotten in and out more easily, but styled like real furniture rather than sterile hospital furniture.
"Never in my life would I have thought, before Katherine, that I would want a child who has gone through so much," John said. "Every minute mattered. I would never want to go through it again, but it makes you realize how life is precious."
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
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