Grimes beats odds, lives to see silver lining

BY KATIE BAYER Staff Writer

Noah Grimes was only three weeks old when it happened. He was being carried down the stairs by a family member when they suddenly tripped and sent him tumbling down to the ground below, hitting his fragile head against the floor. Noah suffered brain hemorrhaging and a skull fracture. He was rushed to the hospital, where he stayed in the NICU for three days.

Noah had been born prematurely. A newborn who was 5 ½ weeks early, he was more vulnerable than most. Emotions were high, and the frightening possibility of him not surviving hung like fog in the air.

Katherine Grimes, Noah’s mother, remembers the day of Noah’s fall and describes it as nothing short of a miracle.

“My mom [Noah’s grandmother] tells me that when it happened, I was super calm and just held him really close,” Katherine said. “He never lost consciousness to our knowledge. I just remember praying over him and singing to him and things like that. Days later, I just remember clinging to God and then saying, ‘I feel like God’s got bigger plans than this, that this isn’t going to be the end of his story.’”

Katherine was right. During those three days in the NICU, friends from all over came to shower the family with food, company, and prayer. Gradually, Noah was nursed back to health, but there were long-lasting complications.

“All my life, I’ve suffered from dyspraxia, which is the official medical term for: ‘I have fine motor skill problems,’” Noah said. “My hand-eye coordination is not good, which is why I played baseball for much of my life before high school to try to train that. I also have sensory processing problems that is the same type of thing you see in autism, like bright lights and loud sounds. Grimes added, “If I get a bunch of homework assignments in a week, I can be really overwhelmed by that. When I was younger, I hated getting my photo taken because just the slightest sound of a camera clicking would set me off.”

Noah’s motor skills were not the only thing that were affected.

“A lot of my life growing up was in different types of physical and speech therapy,” Noah said. “I also suffer from speech apraxia, which means I’m not very good at translating what’s going on in my head. I often fluster my words – I know livestreaming service. After talking with his old youth pastor, an OBU alumnus, he decided to join the communications department and become a Tiger himself. As a college freshman, Grimes was a founding member of the Ouachita Sports Digital Network and has used his experiences in the program to skyrocket to greater things throughout his university career.

“He has done everything on his own, and I have no doubt that he will continue to do that all throughout his life,” Katherine said. “He’s making his way in the world and without any help from us, so it’s a total God thing. He’s my miracle child.”

When asked what the silver lining was in his story, Noah gave a knowing smile.

what I want to say, but it doesn’t come out translating smoothly.”

Katherine was devastated when first learning Noah’s condition. “I can remember leaving and my husband and I just crying. The doctors pretty much told us that he might not ever be able to speak properly, that people might not be able to understand him his whole life. The hope just drained out of us.”

For the first 12-14 years of his life, Noah went to speech therapy. He was trained to become a better speaker by reading literature and rapidly read through any book he could find, including the Harry Potter series. In the third grade, Noah was reading at a sixth-grade level.

By the time he reached high school, Grimes had become the senior sports editor for the school’s

“I think there’s two,” Noah said. “The first, give God all the glory. You hear so many horror stories of kids being born early, and the mother’s health and the kid’s health being negatively affected. That could have happened to me and my mom, but it didn’t, and why? I don’t know. Only God does, but it might even lead up to this. I don’t know His grand plan, but ultimately, it’s going to be for His glory. Second, it taught me to have a great sense of humor. I think humor is one of the great gifts God gave man: the ability to laugh and to laugh with and at each other. I take aim at myself more than anyone else. I joke about it [the accident] – it’s not something that I’m ashamed of, it’s just part of my story.”

After graduating, Noah has plans to become a sound technician and gives much credit to Ouachita for how it has helped him grow.

“I love Ouachita. I love my story, and I hope it inspires others to be proud of what they’ve gone through in their life,” Noah said.

“And ultimately, I hope that God’s glory will be shown out of it, because in today’s age, it’s desperate- ly needed.”

Noah’s story is a true testament to his faith. From sickness to success, he has never lost sight of the One who has made everything possible and does not take his life for granted. Noah is a true inspiration but says that he hopes others can look at his story and be directed to Christ.

“There have been points in my life that it’s frustrating because therapy is not fun,” Noah said. “It’s repetitive – I’d go two to three times a week, and as a small kid, you don’t really understand why. But looking back on it now, it’s like God gave me this story for a reason. Not everyone gets this chance, so I don’t really want to waste it, and ultimately shine it back onto Him and His glory and His Kingdom, because if I don’t, then who will?”