On many of you are aware on Sunday I write about someone we can all admire. Melika Ghanaati, now 19, is such a person.
From Epoch Bright:
Melika Ghanaati hasn’t been able to walk unaided since 2013 due to four debilitating medical conditions.
She was born with a severe form of scoliosis—a curved spine—as well as congenital myopathy, a disorder that has caused weakness in her muscles, severe club feet, and recurring kidney stones.
Growing up, she either used a walker or a wheelchair and needed various surgeries to correct her curved spine.
After the final surgery in 2016, doctors told her she was “banned” from walking.
It took Ms. Ghanaati three years to find the confidence to visit a physiotherapist. She realized her graduation would be the perfect time to take her first steps.
By July 2022, she was doing physiotherapy, and her last year of high school was very chaotic.
Describing her time doing the physio as “like a baby learning to walk,” Ms. Ghanaati’s progress was gradual—she had to take one step at a time.
She was given exercises such as holding on to the wall and putting one foot in front of the other.
“Graduation was the goal,“ she said. ”I had to keep going.”
Wanting to keep it a surprise, she didn’t tell her friends or parents that she was practicing walking for graduation. However, she informed the graduation committee about her plans in case something went wrong.
“I kept saying to myself in my head, ‘Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall.’”
She looked down at her feet because she knew she would get distracted if she looked at the audience.
Ms. Ghanaati was given the Vision of the Future Award for achieving good grades and the School Board Award for academic and extracurricular involvement.
She walked across to get her awards and only discovered afterward that her parents, Marjan Simi, 49, and Masaud Ghanaati, 56, were a crying mess.
“It was a big success, I saw my dad wiping tears with his jacket sleeve.”
She also didn’t realize she’d received a standing ovation from the audience.
If anyone deserved a ‘Standing O’ it was Melika Ghanaati!
5/5/24