Several readers have sent in the following story, posted over at TheBlaze.com, covering former pro wrestler Steven Sharp who is now a full-time stay at home day taking care of his special needs daughter. The following are excerpts from the article, which goes on to note that the father is raising funds to shoot a film about his daughter's life. You can contribute to the campaign by clicking here. The project has raised over half of its goal, and there is still a month left to contribute.
As a stay-at-home dad, Sharp cares for his daughter full-time. The role is one that differs profoundly from what he had originally hoped to do.
For much of his adult life, Sharp was an aspiring wrestler. Looking to take his abilities to the professional level, he worked for nearly a decade and gave it “the best shot” he could.
“I would travel up and down the road, living out of a Ford Escort,” he said of the years prior to his marriage and before his daughter, Samantha, arrived. “I worked various jobs just to keep me going [and] would wrestle on the weekends.”
The battle has not been an easy one. Sharp said that, considering his family’s standing as civilians working for the Armed Forces, the military tried, unsuccessfully, to push the family into the German health care system.
“They kept trying to push us out of the military system and into the German health care system,” Sharp said, noting that he and his wife pushed back. “They kept recommending over and over and over again that [they] might not be able to [handle Samantha's care].”
In the end, though, the family stayed in the military system.
The nightmare didn’t end there, though, as the Sharp family faced so many harrowing challenges in the months and years that followed. Samantha was left with a 75 to 80 percent loss of her cortex and, as a result, doctors weren’t even initially able to tell the family whether she was in a vegetative state.
From there, the medical issues worsened. Throughout her short life, she “coded” (nearly died and needed to be resuscitated) five times and has experienced serious infections that hold the potential to kill her.
“She doesn’t speak. She never will. She doesn’t walk, she doesn’t laugh, she doesn’t cry,” Sharp told TheBlaze, noting that his daughter still does show some emotion and that she recognizes his voice.
Sharp is looking to raise funds for a film called “Amazing Grace & Dad.” He has launched an IndieGoGo campaign in an effort to raise $10,000 to produce the movie — one that he hopes will provide a lens into Samantha’s life, while helping to change the individuals who watch it (here’s more about the film).
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
