A home without barriers

In Karla Kennedy’s home, life revolves around football whether she likes it or not. Her youngest son, Kameron, plays on the Homewood High School freshman team, and all three of her sons spend every weekend watching football games and teasing each other for their Auburn or Alabama allegiances.

“Other than myself, everybody else from Thursday until Sunday it’s nothing but football,” Karla said. “I even get booted out of the one room of my own, the kitchen, because there’s going to be football on that TV too.”

Her two oldest sons, however, have to cheer on their favorite teams from motorized wheelchairs. Keyun and Khiry are 2011 and 2014 HHS graduates and are diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease that took away their ability to walk and could eventually paralyze them.

“It’s just a slow deterioration of muscle. So you start out able to do a lot of things easily, but then things start to get difficult,” Keyun said.

They were diagnosed in 1999, and while Duchenne has limited some of their independence, neither Keyun nor Khiry lets it get in the way of going to school or having a full social life.

“Even though they are in these chairs, Keyun and Khiry are always going. They have friends that are able to get them pretty much anywhere they’re interested in going,” Karla said.

When the Kennedys moved into a West Homewood home in August, however, Keyun and Khiry were almost homebound. The house did not have a wheelchair ramp and the family could not find someone to build one on short notice, so Karla decided to reach out to the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).

“I hardly ever call. I always feel like someone else has something more going on, has a bigger problem than we have,” Karla said. “We’ve managed to do quite well for a while.”

The MDA contacted Steve Pegues, the president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Alabama, and he came up with a plan to make the Kennedys’ home accessible. With the help of area firefighters, including five from Homewood, Pegues built a ramp in one day. On Aug. 2, Keyun and Khiry were able to move into their house entirely on their own. 

The firefighters also created a sidewalk from the ramp to the street later that week. Doster Construction donated the concrete for the sidewalk, and the Lowe’s on U.S. 280 sold Pegues the ramp materials at cost. 

Karla is excited about the new ramp and grateful for the firefighters who volunteered their time and energy. Keyun and Khiry will face many difficulties with Duchenne, but they never have to worry about their home holding them back from everything they want to do.

“To help somebody less fortunate and to make their lives easier just makes me happy,” said Homewood firefighter Kyle Cohen. “They [the Kennedys] were ecstatic.”