Boyd Kobe

"Happy-go-lucky" is the way mother Betty Kobe describes Boyd, her third born child of four. She says he hasn’t changed all that much since he was a young boy on the family farm. Betty says Boyd was always a big help on the farm and participated in the 4-H club. He once won a trophy for a prize cow, despite his tendency to overfeed it, a habit that Betty remembers having to watch carefully. Betty is “not one to write anyone off. If he can’t do it, he’d have to prove to me that he can’t do it. I always gave him a try.”

Betty sensed that something was not normal with her pregnancy long before Boyd was born. She had to demand a specialist to consult with after his birth so that she could get some info on what the problem was. Boyd spent a long time in the hospital while his family tried to gather information and advice about his care. Betty remembers being told that she shouldn’t “expect too much from him.” Results of his first assessments predicted that he would never be able to walk, read or write. Betty says she “wouldn’t let anyone else tell her what Boyd could or couldn’t do.” She had faith in his capacity to learn and decided to care for Boyd at home. Doctors were amazed at the progress Boyd had made when Betty took him back to the doctor at six months old. Boyd developed an aversion to white clothes as a result of his many encounters with doctors.

The Kobes involved Boyd in special training at a young age. They avoided programs that were "just essentially babysitting." "We wanted more because we were convinced that he could do more." Boyd's brothers taught him to walk. His family taught him the letter "B" in one weekend. They enrolled Boyd in the Winnifred Stewart School in Edmonton. “If he could learn the letter B, he could learn the whole alphabet.”

When he was old enough, Boyd boarded with a family in Grande Prairie and attended Crystal Park School. He graduated from High School and then moved on to live in a series of group homes. Boyd currently works at Swan Industries. He has also worked for eleven years at the golf course and does school cleaning for Peace Wapiti School Board. He is a good cook, likes dancing and loves clothes, a preference that may have been established when he modeled for the local Woolco department store at six years old.