“My parents never told me I couldn’t do things,” she said. “They never treated me differently than my sister. I never thought I was limited. I just did it.

“I didn’t realize how different my parents were in how they raised me. I guess I still don’t realize I’m disabled,” she said. “I don’t go out thinking I’m disabled. I just do things and don’t care what people think.”

No one has held Lucas back, and she doesn’t plan on allowing that to happen. She has always met challenges successfully.

“Doctors said I never would walk, but what do they know?” she said smiling. “I walked when I was five. I think my sister was tired of carrying me around, so she taught me to walk.

“I did it all. I had lots of friends. I went cruising with my friends. I would go to basketball games — you can’t miss them when you’re from Anderson High School.”

Lucas has been helping others suffering from her same disability to understand they can lead normal lives and to not allow themselves to be held back.

“A few years back I met a woman and her son was 3-months-old with the same thing,” she said. “I made a video of me doing everyday things and whatever people normally take for granted. I showed them when I was washing my hair, blow-drying my hair, doing my makeup, brushing my teeth.”

“She ended it with her being on my tractor mowing my yard,” her mother said.

“The hardest part was watching myself,” Theresa Lucas said. “In my head I do everything like everyone else. When I see myself — I’m not doing that.”

Lucas shot the homemade video, “A day with Theresa,” seven years ago. Word got out on how helpful the tape was, and by now she has sent about 60 tapes all over the U.S. and even out of the country. She plans on making a second one, “Another day with Theresa,” with the help of friends.

“It feels good to know that I’ve helped somebody else,” she said, her eyes tearing up. “A 3-year-old girl, Abby, watched it. Abby calls me ’Resa and her mother said ‘I had to buy watercolors because Abby wants to paint like ’Resa.”