A Magic Moment for Bethany

RCHS second-grader Bethany Meeks of Big Springs turned 9 on Aug. 5. Her birthday present? A truly magic moment.

At birth Bethany was diagnosed with occipital encephlocele, a disease causing 50 percent of Bethany’s brain to be outside of her head when she was born.

“She was expected to be a vegetable all her life,” says her mother Michelle Meeks. Bethany’s doctors thought she would never be able to talk, see, hear, crawl or play. However, she is capable of performing all of these activities today.

After all she has accomplished, Bethany had one more wish: a play set of her very own.

“Since she was about four, she’s wanted a play area,” says her mother.

Michelle learned of Magic Moments, a nonprofit organization dedicated to granting handicapped children’s non-medical wishes, through Children’s Rehabilitation Services in Opelika. She quickly contacted the organization to inform them of her daughter’s wish.

A few months later, carpenter Rob Watson of Backyard Adventures appeared in Bethany’s front yard to grant her wish.

Bethany’s play set had been custom designed for her to be able to enjoy, and it features the two things she requested, a swing and a fort on the bottom.