NPR

A father's grief inspires a touching headstone for his disabled son

Ernest Robison's son, Matthew, never walked or jumped. But after the boy's death, Robison said, "I got the idea that he would just be able to rise physically from his wheelchair and go up to heaven."
Ernest Robison said he began crafting a bronze sculpture of his deceased son for his "own comfort." But the resulting statue and the attention it has drawn have inspired Robison and his wife to launch a nonprofit that helps people obtain free or low-cost mobility equipment.

Matthew Robison, who had cerebral palsy, spent his entire life in a wheelchair. So when he died at age 10 1/2, his parents thought they'd commemorate his life with a unique grave monument showing that he'd been liberated from the device.

"I got the idea that he would just be able to rise physically from his wheelchair and go up to heaven," his father, Ernest Robison, told NPR.

"And he'd be free from all of the disabilities and limitations that he had here on the

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