Despite his small size, Jerry dreamed of driving a big truck, like his grandfather, said his mother, Vicky Sue Trivett, 56, in an interview. "I told him he was too little to drive a truck. 'How are you going to get up there?' "
His mother said she couldn't make the weekly two-hour trips from Johnstown, Pa., to Pittsburgh for medical treatment. At the age of 9, the courts took Jerry away, saying she neglected his medical needs.
He was bounced through a handful of foster homes before Ester Hicks, a cook at a vocational school, welcomed Jerry into her large family in Windber, Pa.
The boy was a good companion. He would hold her hand, follow her around the house talking and inventory the kitchen, calling out items for Hicks to add to a grocery list.
At night, he would not sleep until Hicks bent low and told him "Good night."
But when Jerry became frustrated, which was often, he would explode.
In the summer of 2000, the Make-a-Wish Foundation sent Jerry and his foster family to Disneyworld.
He was treated like a king. He stayed at the Disney Village in a beautiful house. But on the second day, Jerry had a meltdown.
"We just sat there on the curb," Hicks said, "while he screamed."
When the family returned, Hicks' husband fell ill and she realized that with six children, she couldn't handle Jerry anymore.
"I drove him to a respite house and I said, 'Good-bye Jerry,' and he said 'Good-bye,' like nothing was happening, and that was the last time I saw him."
All told, Jerry would bounce through 20 foster homes by age 15. Child welfare workers in Cambria County finally placed him at High Pointe in Oklahoma City, an adolescent psychiatric facility. At the time, the center also had dozens of kids from Philadelphia, placed there by the city's Department of Human Services.
Jerry arrived at High Pointe on Feb. 12, 2003, along with a 56-page medical file detailing his condition.
