Garrett County woman inspires others despite physical challenges

Jun. 28—BITTINGER — Some people simply refuse to let life get them down.

Jessica Riley sits in a wheelchair in her Garrett County home with no movement from the waist down, but she has no time for sympathy.

Although she has epilepsy, she prefers to spend time talking about the needs of others and offering words of encouragement to brighten their day.

Artistically talented, Riley, 31, creates drawings she gives as gifts. Her artwork has been selected for display by Easterseals, a nonprofit that provides disability services, and DelFest, the bluegrass festival held annually in Cumberland.

Riley credits her Christian faith for her positive attitude.

"I believe in God; you might not but I am not going to judge you," she said in a video produced for YouTube. "I believe, personally, God has plans for my life and as long as he gives me breath in my lungs, I'm going to keep fighting and keep going on."

'I wasn't always in a wheelchair'

Born in 1990, she is the first child of Patrick and Bambi Riley. Although small as an infant, she was basically a healthy child.

"I'm in a wheelchair, but I wasn't always in a wheelchair," she said in the video.

But as the months rolled by, she was diagnosed with a failure to thrive. Although smaller than most children her age, as a preteen she continued on, learning fiddle, guitar and accordion, and doing colored pencil drawings.

"I don't remember a time I didn't like to draw," she said. "I started drawing illustrations for the Nancy Drew series."

However, more serious health issues began to emerge. She began experiencing migraines and passing out as a young child and was diagnosed with absence seizures, which causes someone to blank out or stare into space for a few seconds, according to hopkinsmedicine.org.

Things gradually worsened. When she reached her mid-teens, she was having grand mal seizures, which causes a loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions, according to mayoclinic.org. By the time she reached 20, she had been diagnosed with epilepsy, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and dystonia, a movement disorder.

"I woke up one day and I couldn't walk," she said.

She requires a feeding tube because she experiences difficulty swallowing.

"Believe me I've had my days ... really, really sad days," she said. "Particularly when I got my feeding tube; I didn't want it. I was like, no. But I got it because, well my parents wanted me to because they didn't want me to die and I have a nephew and they wanted me to get to know him."

She enjoys spending time with her nephew, Ace William Smith.

"Almost every single day I questioned, did I make the right choices about the feeding tube or should I let myself die then? But my nephew wouldn't even know me," she said. "I can't really play with him like normal. When he was small I would sometimes get on the floor with him and play. Now he is almost 7 and it's like he has outgrown me."

'Love One Another'

Jessica Riley made a decision that she wasn't going to wallow in self-pity.

"Her faith in God is very strong," said Patrick Riley, her father. "God has given her a strong unique ability to handle these hard challenges in life and find a positive way to help someone else. Whatever little thing you can do to lend a hand or put a smile on somebody else's face, that is what she lives for. She has gone through so much and has so many seizures and can barely eat in some ways ... if she can have such a positive attitude, I can make it through my day."

In 2014, Jessica Riley did a drawing of the Zenias that grow outside her home. The drawing was selected by Easterseals as one of its official stamps that year. She also did a multiyear project called "Art for the People," which consisted of more than 200 individual drawings that were given to people Riley thought could use a lift.

"When she does her art she prays over it that people that receive it have positive blessings in their lives," Patrick Riley said. "She gave them all away and the people like to show them to people."

Jessica Riley still has the use of both her hands, but her coordination declined over time, forcing her to stop doing intricate line drawing, so she switched her focus to coloration.

"Whenever she loses one ability she would always try to find something else she could do," her father said.

Jessica Riley recently became involved in coloring the sticker art that is distributed at DelFest each year.

Dre Anders, the vocalist who appears regularly in DelFest's Sunday Morning Gospel Hour, in 2016, asked people to join her in creating a video of "Get Together," the 1967 song by the Youngbloods that includes the lyrics: "Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now." People were asked to sing the song and send it to her to edit into a compilation video.

Patrick and Jessica Riley were one of the first to send a video of them singing the tune. The video inspired a couple, John and Holly Reasner, graphic artists, to come up with a sticker for DelFest with the message "Love One Another" on it.

"I had become friends with the Reasners," Patrick said. "I asked if they would let Jessica give their sticker drawing a color treatment this year for them to look at. Jessica did it and Holly and John loved it. They used her colors for the sticker this year."

Patch Adams

When the stickers are given out people are given the option of making a donation to charity. Jessica Riley was asked to come up with a nonprofit to receive the proceeds. She chose the Gesundheit Institute founded by Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, subject of the 1998 film "Patch Adams" starring Robin Williams.

Wearing his trademark colorful dyed hair and loud shirts, Adams loves to cheer up his patients by providing them comic relief.

Patrick Riley, while attending DelFest Lite in May, met a woman who worked at Adams' institute. "How these things work, it's hard to believe ... we are so blessed," Patrick Riley said.

The Riley's were put in touch with Adams, and Jessica Riley became a pen pal with him and they would chat on the phone together.

"I received a letter telling me that there was a young lady who was battling a debilitating disease in a very inspiring manner," said Adams by phone. "I wanted to know about it. She is quite a lady. The world needs more people like Jessica."

Project Yes

Jessica Riley became involved in a public school system project in the spring as the COVID-19 pandemic subsided.

Patrick and Jessica Riley became friends with Terena Knotts, the Project Yes coordinator for grades six through 12 at Braddock Middle School, Allegany and Fort Hill high schools.

"I got to know Jessi and I was talking about some issues I had and she was trying to encourage me," said Knotts. "It made me feel so good. It made my situation look extremely small. It laid on my heart. The message was so positive and I wanted to deliver that to my students."

Knotts asked Jessica Riley if she would make a video that she could share in the classroom for discussion. Jessica Riley obliged and Knotts showed it to her students at Allegany.

"She explained her situation and how she stays so positive," Knotts said. "We teach kids resiliency; don't allow your situation to identify who you are. Don't play the victim, play the survivor.

"The kids were fascinated. They were engaged with it. So then we did a live Zoom and did a classroom discussion with Jessica. She took questions and it went great. They were so encouraged and inspired."

The success of the discussion inspired Knotts to develop a plan to have students distribute her Love One Another sticker, along with a biographical sketch of Jessica Riley, as a service project.

"The kids wanted to pass this around Cumberland," Knotts said. "They were excited. Hearing her story kind of shifted things. Our situation isn't that bad."

Words of support

This summer Jessica Riley is working on her letter writing. Although she uses a tablet to talk with some online, she loves the tactile feel of pen on paper.

"It might be old-fashioned, but I am a paper person," she said. She writes to people across the country offering words of support. "I still write to my first Sunday school teacher," she said.

Jessica Riley was asked why it's important to her to reach out to others.

"My faith is very important," she said. "It's the only stable thing I can count on in life. Because people let you down, your body can let you down, and friendships come and go, but God is always there."

Greg Larry is a reporter at Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @GregLarryCTN.