Best friends Odin Frost and Jordon Granberry both have special needs and grew up together in Tyler, Texas. Both were given a roughly 2 percent chance of survival by their doctors, but on July 16 they graduated from the same high school, defying their shared prognosis.
Tim walked with his son across the graduation stage, calling the moment surreal. “We didn’t think he was going to live,” Tim, 37, exclaimed, “now he’s walking the stage and graduated.”
Jordon’s parents, Donna, 42, and Damon, 44, have been firm friends with Odin’s parents since their children met on the very first day of school. The four parents, all in attendance at the socially distanced graduation ceremony, re-created a touching photo of their sons, aged 3 at the time, sitting together once again on the day of their graduation as accomplished teens.
Odin was born prematurely, Tim explained to The Epoch Times via email. His mother, Deanda, 40, had preeclampsia, which caused stress on baby Odin during childbirth. “He couldn’t breathe on his own,” Tim said. “He stayed in the NICU for two weeks before getting to come home.”
Odin had bleeding on the brain and a club foot, and he spent his first few years in and out of hospitals. Doctors suspected that he may never walk and may lapse into a “vegetative state” if he made it past the age of 7.
Tim and Deanda, unwilling to give up on their son’s prospects, found a school tailored for children with all manner of special needs aged between 3 and 21. Odin was accepted.
“He then received the diagnosis of severe autism with speech and mobility impairment,” Tim went on. “After a few years of physical therapy and leg braces, he was in his room on school holiday and we heard a clanging about ... [we] looked down the hallway and saw him walking towards us for the first time, at age five.”
From then on, Odin has been “on the move” all over the place. “This is something doctors gave a very low chance of ever doing,” he reflected. “His determination to be mobile outweighed any prognosis.”
The teens attend physical and speech therapy at their school, and Tim’s son’s interests extend way beyond the boundaries of the classroom. “Odin is, above anything else, a musician,” he said. “He is also a very gifted abstract finger painter.”
Since receiving his high school diploma, Odin plans to stay at his school until the age of 21. He will also work alongside his father in Tim’s music studio, creating music for adverts; Odin has already helped his father compose two successful ad campaigns for Forever 21 and Tiffany & Co.
“He will remain living with me and his mom for as long as needed,” Tim added. “My hope for him is that he is happy, safe, and full of joy. His job is just to spread that joy to the world, simply by being him.”
