An old article from Gallaudet's Buff and Blue magazine. Written by Kami
Padden. Spring 2006.
Kandace Morris was born in
Turlock, California but was raised in Modesto, but she currently live in
Turlock. She became Deaf when she was only three months with spinal
meningitis. Her Deafness doesn’t stop her at all. People might see Kandace
Morris as a straight A & B student and captain of her swimming team with a
good-looking boyfriend of four years. She is not what she seems on
the outside. She has several dark secrets to share.
At an early age, she and
her younger sister Ashley had been physically abused by her biological father.
It was a very emotional, physical, mentally and verbal abuse that left her
depressed. AS a result, she was placed in a mental hospital where she
eventually recovered. Her mother has bipolar disorder and was often in and out
of mental hospital. Her mother occasionally came back home but was unable to
function well on her own, so Kandace often took her younger sister under her
wing and nurtured her.
In fact, she named her
sister Ashley herself because she knew she wanted to name her Ashley even
before her birth. She and her younger sister successfully moved out of their
parents’ house and were about be adopted by their foster family when tragedy
stuck.
“I was looking forward to
having a male role model but my foster father suddenly died of a disease called
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. I was disappointed but was glad to move in with
my foster family where I was able have a healthy relationship with my family
members,” she said. Unfortunately, her foster uncle first committed suicide and
her other foster uncle mater murdered one of his family members in cold blood.
That only made her stronger as a person.
When Kandace was little,
her birth mother would often place her in swimming summer classes every summer
because she wanted to make sure that her daughter would know how to swim.
As Kandace grew up, she attended Downey High School and she joined their
swimming team, but she later transferred to CSDF. Before enrolling at CSDF, she
attended Downey because she was scared to leave her sister alone with her
parents. She just had to stay closer to her sister until their foster family
had adopted her. After having their foster family adopt her and her sister, she
was finally able to attend CSDF as a full-time student and play three sports:
volleyball, basketball, and softball for first three years. Unfortunately, she
played softball instead of swimming for good three years. She missed swimming
so much that she decided to go back to swimming during her senior year. She graduated
with her class in 2004. To this day, she still swims.
After graduating high
school, Kandace came to Gallaudet University and is a current junior student
with great determination to do well in school and sports. During her
freshman year, she won the Most Improved Swimmer award and last year, she won
the Most Outstanding Swimmer award. As for this year, she won the Coaches’
Award. Last April, she went to Ypsilanti, Michigan for the National Deaf Games
Swim Meet to compete against other players and she had a blast there. She is a
current member of the United States Deaf National Team and she will go to
Taipei, Taiwan for the World Swimming Championship.
Other than scrapbooking,
reading, and spending time with her family, swimming is what Kandace will
always enjoy doing. She has several goals, which are, break her personal times,
develop a bond with her teammates, and make the best out of the experience. She
is known for her very open, friendly, and nurturing personality.
Her desire is to help unfortunate child in the near future after graduating with a B.A. degree in psychology and M.A. degree in mental counseling or school counseling. To this day, she has been through hard times yet still strives for the best. Lesson: The human spirit is tough to break!
