By Emma Bowen Meyer, For The Herald Bulletin
Boldness has replaced her shyness.
The result has affected hundreds of people who thought they were facing a life of complete dependence.
Theresa Lucas inspires others who have the rare condition arthrogryposis multiplex congenita by showing them just how capable she is, despite her severe impairment. She did it through sheer determination.
Lucas was born with a condition that doctors think may be caused by a lack of movement in the womb, not allowing the limbs and joints to form properly.
People with AMC have joints that don’t move at all and may have little or no muscle tissue in their limbs. Often their hands and feet turn inward.
“The doctor said I would never walk,” said Lucas, who began walking shortly before beginning kindergarten at age 5. “My mom had to fight a little bit to get me into the public schools.”
“It was kind of scary, her going to regular schools,” said Frank Lucas, her father. “The principal at North Anderson Elementary, Chester Buckman, I’ll never forget him. He was an advocate of people with disabilities.
“We tried to get her to stay on the first floor so she wouldn’t have to go up and down the stairs. He said no, that’s what it’s all about. In fourth grade, you go upstairs. If you want to be treated normally, that’s what we’ll do.”
Treating her normally was exactly what members of her family had been trying to do. Knowing that constantly waiting on her would only make Lucas weaker, they encouraged her to find to her own way to do things.
“One doctor told us, ‘You can’t make her normal, but you can make her functional,’” Frank added. “We did treat the kids equally and knew if she wanted something she’d figure out a way to do it. So most of the time, we had to sit tight and watch – which was very difficult – watching her struggle.”
Letting her find her own methods proved to be the best medicine available.
“And I did find my own way,” said Lucas, 43. “And I went to Anderson High School – when it was the ‘real’ Anderson High School – with three floors and my locker on the third floor. I just left class five minutes early. That’s all I did, and it worked.”
In high school, Lucas discovered her love for art and her ability to paint by placing the brush in her mouth, but she was too shy to allow anyone to watch her. Her teacher was kind enough to let her paint at home and bring her work to school.
Although she placed her art on the back burner to become a stay-at-home aunt caring for her nephew, she never forgot her love for painting.
Twelve years ago, she picked up watercolors and has been creating beautiful pictures ever since. She was still timid about her technique.
“She wouldn’t even paint in front of us until about five years ago,” Frank said.
“I would paint when no one was home,” Lucas agreed.
Overcoming her shyness was the desire to help others with her condition. Once the Internet became accessible, she searched for arthrogryposis multiplex congenita and found a support group at amcsupport.org.
Many members were parents of children with the condition. They were seeking advice in teaching their kids how to perform everyday tasks like dressing and brushing their teeth.
Lucas tried to describe her methods, but that proved difficult. One mother finally asked her to make a videotape of herself accomplishing a variety of tasks. Finding the tape to be invaluable, the mother told the support group about it, and Lucas was flooded with requests for a copy. To date, she has mailed out more than 160 tapes or DVDs to fill the need.
“I even had a lot of adults who asked to see it,” she added. “One guy told me he should not have watched it with his wife because now his wife expects him to do the dishes.”
Not only do individuals use the DVD, but therapists use it as well. Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita is so rare that many don’t know how to help their patients or explain how to create a certain amount of independence.
Four years ago, Lucas’ support group decided to have a convention, and she had “Painting with Theresa” sessions.
“That was the first time I painted in front of anybody, but it was with my kids and I didn’t even think about it because they had the same condition that I have,” she said.
The first convention had 100 attendees, the second had 200, and last year’s had 400. Now the painting sessions last all day as different age groups come and go.
“It’s been a comfort for me because she is an adult with my child’s condition and to see her able to do the things that she does is really inspiring to me and now I know that my daughter has a great future ahead of her,” said Ani Samargian, president and founder of the support group. “When she paints, she says: ‘Mommy, Mommy! I painted just like Theresa.’”
In addition to traveling to conventions each year, Lucas visits schools, sometimes at the invitation of the children from the support group. She has made presentations in classrooms in Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan – just to name a few.
“I’ve figured out how to do things by myself,” she said. “That’s my biggest thing with the kids is to teach them that they can. Just because it’s not the way someone else would do it doesn’t mean it’s wrong, it means you can do it.”
In addition to working as the vice president of the support group and aiding in organizing the convention every year, Lucas has been instrumental in coordinating the student art show staged by the Art Association of Madison County in recent years.
“This is our 10th anniversary, and we are going to make it big,” she said with a smile. “A lot of times art is taken out of the schools – art and music are taken first. The kids don’t really have a place to display their art work.”
“I love (the art show) because there aren’t many places around here that offer anything like that,” said Kara Hampton, a Highland High School sophomore. “I’m very glad Theresa does what she does. I appreciate everything the Art Association does to make that opportunity available.”
Just before Christmas, Lucas received a grant for $1,500 from the South Madison Community Foundation for the show.
Lucas’ own realistic art has won awards and even qualified to be part of the state fair, but she now concentrates more on the students’ efforts and no longer travels often with her work.
“Theresa’s style is very unique, but that’s the way she has to do it,” said MK Watkins, local artist since 1959. “I always tell people that it’s not your hands that do the painting; it’s your head that does the painting and however you can make what you’re thinking work, then that’s what you do.
“A lot of the kids at the convention use their feet, and put the brush between their toes. It’s incredible the way the images they see come out.”
Lucas insists that she does not have a disability – she has a “dis’ability.
“‘Dis’ means you can’t,” she added. “That’s not what I have. I have the ability; it’s just different than everybody else’s. I don’t do things the ‘wrong’ way. I do them my way, and it’s OK to do it that way.”
For information about Lucas, go to www.theresalucas.com.
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Student art exhibition set; reception held Sunday
The Art Association of Madison County Inc. will hold its 10th annual Student Exhibition beginning with a reception Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. The exhibit, which is held at Mounds Mall, runs through March 20, with Theresa Lucas as one of the coordinators.
Students are judged in seven categories, although this year, a separate category relates to anything depicting horses, in honor of all the support Hoosier Park has given the association over the years.
