When she was born, doctors said Grace Anna Rodgers, a cherubic 3-year-old with blond curls and a “pistol” personality, would likely be deaf, and that her crushing scoliosis could impair her lung function.
Despite their dire predictions about her ability to hear, Grace has been singing since she was 16 months old. Not only is she a minor celebrity in in her hometown of Liberty, Ky., but in 2013, she became a YouTube sensation for her rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” The video has been seen by nearly 350,000 people around the world.
Grace has a rare form of dwarfism called Conradi-Hunermann, which means she’s short, and her legs are uneven in length. But there is nothing small about her voice.
Now her mother, Angie Rodgers, 40, has already been asked to have Grace sing at a veterans’ benefit in Kansas and at another event in Virginia. Rodgers said there was an even bigger project in the works that she couldn’t yet discuss.
So far, Grace, who is intellectually bright but cannot walk, has overcome just about every obstacle thrown at her. Her mother said Grace could sing even before she began to talk.
“Yesterday I got a call from a doctor who said he thought it would be hard for her walk,” said Rodgers, a middle-school science teacher. “I was told she would never hear very well. I have been told so many things that have proven to be wrong, so I take it with a grain of salt.”
Conradi-Hunermann syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by skeletal malformations, skin abnormalities and cataracts, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. It is caused by an X-linked dominant trait that occurs almost exclusively in girls; boys born with the syndrome usually do not survive.
An estimated one in 400,000 newborns is born with the disorder. Symptoms and severity can vary among individuals, but cataracts, spinal curvature, sparse or coarse scalp hair and scaling of the skin are common.
Rodgers said she’d had three miscarriages before Grace was born and expected she would lose her too. When Rodgers was three months pregnant, doctors noticed skeletal anomalies in an ultrasound, which suggested dwarfism.
“Doctors tried to get us to abort her over five different times,” said Rodgers, who also has a 16-year-old son from a previous marriage. “It never was an option for us.
Born by cesarean section, Grace experienced meconium aspiration, a life-threatening condition that occurs when a baby inhales its first stool during or before delivery.
“I didn’t know if she would make it – they didn’t tell me anything,” said Rodgers. “I never saw her for the first 12 hours and when I did, she had scales on three-quarters of her body. The only place with no scales were her face and butt. They fell off in three months.”
