Life can throw the most cruel things at people and when that happens a person is left with two choices. They can either lay down and give up, maybe even become suicidal, or fight back.

  TinyRay Grier is a fighter. In 1972, at the tender age of 17 TinyRay was playing high school football when an accident resulted in a severe spinal injury. This one moment was to forever end this young man's dreams and to leave him permanently with an uncertain future.

  Operation after operation was to follow this incident with TinyRay suffering endless pain and his spinal injury being further complicated by an automobile accident and several concussions.

  The body was never designed to stay still. It was never designed to remain in one position in a wheelchair and, despite regular 'workouts', TinyRay also has to suffer pain from being in this permanently disabling position.

Over the years he has coped with the following ailments:

Asthma - COPD
Degenerative Joint Disease
Strokes - April 98, July 98
Hypertension
Diabetes
Acid Reflux
Diastolic Dysfunction
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
Spinal Stenosis
Spina Bifida - Occulta
Right Shoulder Impingement
Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
Calcified Granuloma - Bottom Lobe Right Lung
Sleep Apnea
Chronic Sinusitis - Allergies

  Many of these are as a result of that fateful day when a young man went to enjoy a game of football never realizing it would be his last chance to do so.

  At this stage in time TinyRay waits hopefully and patiently for either a series of spinal injections, which *might* block the excruciating pain for a time, or for surgery, an option which would leave him even more disabled and dependent on others than he is at present.

  But TinyRay Grier has never given up. He used his tremendous talent for drawing and painting to express his feelings, to fight back against the beasts of pain who he faces each and every day. His talent and dedication to his art has made him respected among his peers and his style can be readily recognized.

  Each day he can be found painting, relaxing with his family or enjoying the freedom given to him by the Internet. He fills his days with things he enjoys, to take away the discomfort and distract him from what lies ahead.

  In the years of constant pain TinyRay could have developed resentment against the world, he could expect that since the world removed his ability to walk and dance it now owed him a living. That's not been the result. TinyRay feels that if the world won't help him, with his faith in God, family and friends, he'll fight every step of the way, and that he does, every day and in every way.

~ Loadstar ~

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