HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — After months of daily rehabilitation, a life-changing surgery and more roadblocks on the road to recovery, eight-year-old Cooper Roberts who was paralyzed waist down in the July 4 Highland Park Parade shooting is trying to adjust to his new lifestyle.
His parents, Jason and Keely Roberts said that the “new normal” is trying to figure out how to transition the eight-year-old into his new lifestyle amid continued grief and difficult challenges.
“There is a lot of trying to figure out how to pick up the broken pieces of a life we knew and put it back together, but without the instructions.” “Yet, we choose to focus on what we do have. Cooper is alive and home and our sweet and lovely athletic little boy has made up his mind that he is going to figure out new ways to play sports,” the Roberts.
The family stated that Cooper has decided to take up wheelchair tennis and has already started going.
“We have no doubt Cooper will be wicked awesome at tennis…and any other sport he decides to play. It will just be different.”