BY TYLER RICHARDSON
Tri-City HeraldMay 3, 2015
Judawn Merritt stopped mid-sentence to hop up from her Prosser living room couch and retrieve a scrapbook filled with recent pictures of her son playing in a basketball game.
The mother of four proudly showed off snapshots of Luke Merritt, 12, jumping for a rebound and gliding toward the hoop for a layup. With each flip of the page, her enthusiasm became more and more palpable.
There is nothing out of the ordinary about a parent gushing over her child’s latest accomplishment. But the scrapbook Merritt held on her lap represented much more than just childhood moments captured in time.
It symbolized a small victory in the ongoing battle the Merritt family has waged against multiple sclerosis since Luke was diagnosed with the unpredictable disease a year ago.
The pictures are proof that Luke refuses to let the disease steal his childhood.
“Luke deals with MS every day,” said Judawn, whose husband, Doug, is the Prosser fire chief. “He just wants to be like everyone else.”
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