In Anna’s words:
“I wanted Fritzy to know that he didn’t have the worst life by a long shot. I told Fritzy all the time that it’s how you deal with your troubles that’s important. Jes’ ’cause he was in a wheelchair, it didn’t mean that he was off the hook in tryin’ to be the best person that he could be. He shook his leg from side to side, which made me realize he didn’t entirely agree. But I always reminded him that God is gradin’ us, and that included Fritzy Worrell, too.
The love I felt for Fritzy was one of both sympathy and respect. I not only felt his pain but his excitement about jes’ bein’ alive. Every day that I kept him alive was a reward to my senses and my sense of responsibility. I knew Fritzy better than anybody—better than his mother, father, or anyone. He was my reason for bein’.
He never took a step in his whole life. Never held the hand of a girl. Never ran down the street with his friends, or played hide and seek, or spoke words in a sentence like we do every minute of our lives. He never lived by our standards, but he did so many things that others take for granted and saw things other people never noticed.”
