When Charley Hooper turned 18 recently, there was a cake with candles, gifts of clothing and jewellery, and a chorus of Happy Birthday from her parents Jenn and Mark, as well as brothers Zak and Cody.
But it wasn’t an occasion for celebration. Every one of Charley’s birthdays is a traumatic anniversary of what Jenn describes as “the single worst day of our collective lives”, but this milestone one was particularly upsetting because it marked a future that’s even more fraught now that she’s legally an adult.
Charley suffered a catastrophic brain injury at birth during a botched delivery that left her profoundly disabled. She can’t speak, see or move and it’s thought she has the brain function of a four- to sixweek-old baby. She couldn’t blow out the candles on her cake or even see them. She doesn’t understand the concept of what a birthday is. Her parents have spent the last 18 years lovingly and diligently caring for her every need, making sure she has the best life
