Posted on 09/09/2001 7:19:42 AM PDT by Clive
Little Ashley Cowan managed to keep her spirit intact after doctors took away most of her limbs when she was just 18 months old.
"When she came out of her coma (after) a month and went through the amputation I knew she was a fighter," her mom Shurlene recalled of Ashley's bout with meningitis that led to gangrene and, finally, amputation.
"She asked for her shoes right away," Shurlene said yesterday of the prosthetic limbs the little girl accepted and jumped on at the first opportunity.
The mother who kept a vigil at the little girl's hospital bedside every day during her struggle with the rare meningococcemia was by her daughter's side as the 15-year-old took on a dream and swam across Lake Erie on Friday.
Police, firefighters, paramedics and organizers rallied Ashley's spirit with songs and tongue-twisters but coach and record-setting marathon swimmer Vicki Keith said Ashley's mom was the beacon that led the teen to land.
"Sometimes you need your mom," said Keith, who was side by side with Ashley in a kayak the entire way.
A beaming Shurlene Cowan rattled off her daughter's accomplishments as the teen splashed around in a friend's backyard pool only hours after she became the youngest person to swim across Lake Erie.
The calm red-headed woman, who is also a mother to a developmentally challenged girl and a boy with adhd (attention deficit hyperactive disorder), said Ashley has continually refused to give up hope.
After she brought home medals for everything from figure skating to swimming, Shurlene's hope that her daughter have an exceptional life shaped into reality.
But it was Ashley's final 800 metres of the 20-km swim that made Shurlene most proud.
"She did it. This was her biggest dream," she said. "Towards the end I did (have doubts) when she said she wanted out. And then all of sudden she got that burst of energy."
Ashley pins the burst of energy on pure frustration as she struggled to swim the final kilometre. "I just wanted to get out of the water," she said while wading in the pool yesterday, never tiring of treading water despite the 20-km swim only hours before.
Shurlene didn't expect the reception Ashley got as hundreds cheered her on as she pulled for shore at Crystal Beach late Friday.
"I didn't expect that many people," said the girl, who burst into tears, then laughter after reaching the dock where she was mobbed by family and reporters.
One onlooker said the atmosphere along the rocky lookout reminded her of Terry Fox making his way through the small town 21 years earlier, stirring up the same gamut of emotions and teary pride.
Shurlene's aim was not to raise money. She took the plunge for a love of the water and a desire to break down the barriers she encounters daily.
"I have to learn to do different things. I have to adapt. If somebody says I can't do it, then I want it more," said the tenacious girl who urged people to accept dreams as a step towards accomplishment.
"You can't underestimate a disabled person. You can't underestimate any person," said Ashley, whose mature facade and outgoing personality makes her appear 20.
But still inside the mature young woman is the little girl who craved McDonald's after her swim and fought off her little brother in a food fight at the fast-food restaurant.
A teen, who despite taking on Lake Erie, still teetered on the edge of a friend's pool slide yesterday afraid she might fall.
But like everything else the quadruple amputee has encountered, she took on the challenge and made a splash.
Her goal was met at 11:20 p.m. Friday after a gruelling 14 hours and 25 minutes in the frigid, black waters where she moaned in pain and anguish, defying her stiff shoulders and the voice in her head urging her to give up.
"Every time she said 'I want out' she'd take another stroke forward," said coach Vicki Keith, who too has endured the mental anguish that goes hand in hand with a long swim.
Keith said she never let Ashley give up on herself.
"I know her, I know what she's capable of," said Keith, who has trained Ashley ever since the eight-year-old girl entered her life on the pool deck at Variety Village, a recreation facility for both disabled and able-bodied kids.
"She (pouted) asking, 'What do I have to do to get on your team,' and I said eight laps non-stop with flip turns."
Ashley who had never gone further than a lap jumped in the pool thrashing through the water with an intensity that's still there.
"I saw Vicki on TV and wanted to meet her. I wanted to do what she did," she said.
It took seven years for Ashley to become the youngest to swim across Lake Erie.
Keith's husband, John Monroe, also a marathon swimmer, said preparing for a swim is a complex proposition.
"When you train, it's 90% physical, 10% mental. When you actually get into the water, it's 90% mental, 10% physical," Monroe said.
But he and Vicki know how to play the game after criss-crossing many great bodies of water.
"Sometimes I had to leave it to the other people, sometimes with her and sometimes I encouraged," said Keith, who has always marvelled at the girl who can pump out 80 strokes per minute. "We had spent a lot of time talking about (the swim). We had prepared her to go 24 hours," Keith said.
The feat is no surprise to retired surgeon Dr. Hugh Thomson, who said Ashley was a remarkable patient.
But although Ashley blossomed early she is not the only patient to go on to athletic glory. Thomson said that seeing his little patients develop into athletes has given him a rare appreciation of the abilities of the disabled: "Limits exist only in the mind."
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