Who was Michael?
 My brother, Michael, was born one month before his due date and he also had cerebral palsy . He was _ . He never lost his baby teeth, never grew taller than about 30 inches and never weighed more than 28 pounds. They did estimate, however, that he would not live to see his 12th birthday. 

As a boy I learned to feed and clothe Mike. As a teenager, I babysat for my "big brother" and learned use the proper medicine to prevent the seizures that caused him to tremble. 

Many people said he would never walk or talk . He never did learn to walk, but he did learn to talk --not even in complete sentences, but he had the basics down. If he was hungry, thirsty, happy or sad, we knew. He knew names too. I was Kagun, not Kevin. But that changed with a beard I grew during the summer before college. Family members said it was ugly. Mike heard it.  