Many years down the line, Chris is standing tall

It was almost 18 years ago that I introduced a young man to you.

Christopher Reinheimer came into this world on Aug. 15, 1990, at Alamance Memorial Hospital.

That was a happy time. But it quickly turned bad.

Chris was early. Very early. In fact, he only weighed about three pounds. And I remember the first time I saw him I could hardly spot him amid all the tubes. He had more than serious problems.

Chris is great-nephew to Billie Faye and myself, the closest thing to a grandson we have.

I told you of his trials as he was transferred to the University of North Carolina Medical Center. And I told you as the hospital team went to great lengths to keep him alive as he struggled to overcome the effects of his early arrival.

Hopes would be high one day, then dashed the next. And this roller coaster went on for some two months. It seemed impossible that he would ever make it home.

We learned a lot about the children's hospital at Chapel Hill. We learned that it was staffed with men and women who lived with life and death every day, and who worked miracles for some and cried with parents who suffered heartbreaking losses.

But in the middle of October that year, he did make it home to Burlington.

As time went by, I wrote a column here and there about him and how he continued to make progress. A lot of you asked about him and wanted to know his progress over the years.

There was one column in particular when he went off to his first day at kindergarten. Ran a photo with that one. Chris, with his lunchbox and backpack, was sitting on my knee, a little towheaded guy with a big smile, ready for the world.

He played football, tee-ball, baseball, basketball and did all the things kids do. It was hard to believe as the years passed that Chris had ever been so small and in such a dangerous situation.

Every day seemed a gift for his Mom and Dad, Melinda and Ted, and sister Kristin.

The reason I share Chris with you again today is the fact that several nights ago, I watched as he received his diploma from Western Alamance High School, another milestone that we thought many times might never come.

At Western he found a new sport, golf. He was on the golf team there two years, and this year he was the only member of the Western team to qualify to play in the state championship event in Pinehurst. He did not win, but he played well.

The fact that he played at all still seems a miracle to those of us who were there in 1990.

Now Chris - grandson of Dolores and John Truitt and Mary Lou and Harry Reinheimer, all of Elon - is off to Campbell University in late August, 18 years later.

Don Bolden is editor emeritus of the Times-News. His column appears every Sunday. He can be contacted at DBolden202@aol.com