This year Sandra Norman, known for her relaxed personality, has had the opportunity to experience pregnancy at a young age as well as overcome the negative attitude that so many have toward the issue.

The father of Norman’s child, Corran Grayson, said he was nervous when he found out she was pregnant. “I knew (the coming of the baby) was going to be really busy,” he said “and it was going to take up a lot of my time.”

It was after Norman was two months along that she found the courage to tell her father.

“When I found out, I was not happy,” Steve Norman said. “But I knew she’d be a good mother.” He laughs as he reminisces, remembering her cooking full meals at the age of 9. “She’s been grown for a long time. And in a way, she’s older than 17.”

It was during her fourth month of pregnancy that Norman experienced her greatest obstacle.

“I began having really bad headaches that hurt so bad I had to stop whatever I was doing.”

The headaches continued, and it was after being rushed to the hospital that she found out she had had a stroke.

Norman’s sister, Nina Bradley, said the stroke terrified her. “I was scared for her and the baby,” she said. “So I had to make sure I began to help her more because her mind was too over-worried.”

Norman’s father was also shaken up about the stroke because of its ability to leave a person either “paralyzed or dead.”

“The doctor gave her aspirin to thin her blood and told her to stay away from stressful situations,” her father said. “But she was pregnant, and that was stress in itself. I had to keep how I felt about her situation to myself so I wouldn’t cause even more stress.”

Norman continued to remain strong despite her continuing headaches and frail condition, and it almost came as a shock to her when her son, Novell Leroy Grayson, was brought into the world on Feb. 8, and she put everything else in her life on the back burner.

Norman decided not to finish the school year with her friends or graduate with her class to look after her son, and will be doing home schooling for the rest of the year.

The new mother says she is going to continue her education and will be content with getting her grades up and going to a community college for a few years.

Sandra Norman has taken the steps needed for her child to remain first in her life, and she accepts full responsibility for him because she knows he is just that…her child.