Any piece of legislation passed by Congress, approved by the Senate, signed by the president, that in turn erodes liberty must not be viewed by the American people as the law of the land, for it is in truth the beginning of the end of our world.

—LANCASTER R. HILL, MEMOIR (UNPUBLISHED), 1940

Humphrey Miller had four different in-home aides who assisted him throughout the week—three women and one man. There were others who tended to his needs on weekends. The aides generally worked for two hours then left or accompanied him to the van for transport to his job at Arbor General. The nighttime help took care of preparing his dinner and the subsequent cleanup, addressed his bathing and grooming needs, changed him into his bedclothes, and physically moved him from his wheelchair into his adjustable bed.

While he slept, many of Humphrey’s CP symptoms went dormant along with the rest of him, offering a brief but welcomed respite from his daily physical travails.

On weekday mornings, Humphrey’s favorite aide, Cassie Bayard, would let herself into the apartment to help get him ready for his workday. He always wished her time with him could last longer. Cassie was a strikingly beautiful Jamaican woman, tall and long limbed, with ebony skin and caring eyes, and was the focus of most of Humphrey’s fantasies. He often lightly referred to her as Mama Teresa, but it really was a fitting moniker. Dependable as sunrise, Cassie, a single mother of three, always brought a lift to the start of Humphrey’s day. Like many with CP, most of life’s many mundane tasks were mini-mountains he was forced to climb time and time again. Cassie’s enthusiasm made his daily trudges up Mount Life all the more manageable.

Humphrey had a mixed form of CP resulting in symptoms of both the spastic and athetoid types. Not easy. He endured involuntary movements of his face, arms, legs, and body, difficulty swallowing, drooling, and slurred speech, in addition to having tight muscles, which limited his movement altogether. He credited Cassie with keeping him from wallowing in self-pity.

Cassie knew he was bright and respected him for that. But he had never bothered to try to demonstrate to her just how bright. He was embarrassed to show off in that way, and feared he would intimidate her and drive her away. Now, with the newfound help of Lou Welcome, he wouldn’t have to demonstrate his brilliance to anyone. Universal recognition of that was certain to follow when word got out of his achievement and his role in defeating the Doomsday Germ.