PRINTKayci's Prom
Despite setbacks, Hallsville High School junior Kayci Fadler keeps a positive attitude while living with a disability.
Angie Cipponeri
Kayci Fadler, 17, gets the nails of her prosthetic foot painted at Looks R Hair Salon in Hallsville in preparation for the prom.
June 24, 2009 | 12:00 p.m. CST
It’s a quiet Wednesday around 5 p.m. in a tiny nail and hair salon in Hallsville, where a 17 year-old girl is getting her nails done for the junior prom. Her mother has brought in purple beading from her dress to ensure they choose the right shade of nail polish. Everything must be perfect. The mother tells her daughter she needs to go and turns to nail specialist Christina Allen and asks how much the total for her nails will be.
“It’ll be $7.50,” Allen replies.
Kayci puts on her make-up for the prom. Although she is missing an arm, Kayci ...
Penny Fadler laces up the back of Kayci's dress. Kayci wanted to make sure she ...
Kayci sits and waits for her boyfriend of a year and a half, Ryan Turner, ...
Ryan and Kayci walk through Shelter Gardens in Columbia having their pre-prom pictures taken. It ...
Kayci shows her grandma the matching jewelry she got to go with her dress.
Penny Fadler snaps a picture while Kayci and Ryan kiss. The couple are juniors, but ...
Kayci dances with friends at the prom. Penny says one of the biggest blessings that ...
Kayci and Ryan talk to fellow classmates while slow dancing at the prom.
Ryan and Kayci share a laugh at the prom, which was held at the Elk's ...
“$7.50? That’s it?” says the girl’s mother, Penny.
“She’s only got one arm, Penny!” says Allen as all three of the women begin to laugh.
It is probably this sense of humor and tight knit community that has saved this family many tears. The family is the Fadlers, and the 17 year-old getting her nails done for the Prom is Kayci Fadler, a spunky, lively high-schooler who lost a leg and arm to a bacterial infection called Meningococcemia when she was three. Despite her hardships early in life, she has maintained a positive outlook on life. Doctors gave her a 20 percent survival rate, so her family considers it a miracle that she is alive and healthy today. Kayci has had her struggles, but it’s occasions like prom, a milestone in a teenager’s life, where Kayci can just be typical.
Prom is all about the preparations. What will the theme be? Who will you take? What will you wear? Thoughts and excitement for the prom have been filling Kayci’s head for months. Among many other activities that she is involved in, including Girl Scouts, Student Council, youth group and choir, Kayci is a member of the Prom Committee. After much planning on Kayci and the committee’s part, they decided that the prom would be held at the Elk’s lodge with the theme of “Hollywood.”
Finding a dress would be the next thing. Kayci began looking for a dress in early January with the help of her mother and sister-in-law. Kayci wanted a dress that no other girl had and leaned more towards the princess style dresses. She didn’t want a straight-line dress because she didn’t want her prosthetic leg to show. Then, after trying on about five dresses at The Villager, her mother brought in an ivory dress with amethyst-colored beading.
“You just knew this was a beautiful dress on her,” Penny says. “People walking by would say ‘that didn’t look as good on the hanger.”’
They looked at the price tag, and it was a lot more than they had intended on spending. Kayci told her mom she’d wear it for her wedding, but they decided to look for other options.
Then on January 20, Kayci fell asleep at the wheel while driving home from work and got in a head-on collision with an ambulance.
“Kayci had used up another one of her lives,” Penny says. “You just wonder how much one person can deal with.”
Penny asked Kayci in her heart of hearts if she could have one dress for the prom, what would it be? It was, of course, the ivory dress with purple beading.
Kayci’s injuries from her accident healed, and soon May 2nd, the day of the Prom had arrived. Kayci had her hair done at Looks R Hair salon in Hallsville, bringing jewel embellishments and a photo of Eva Longoria to show the hair stylist what she wanted.
Then it was back to the Fadler house to do Kayci’s make-up and get her dress on. Penny and Kayci consulted on what colors to use on her eyes, then dabbed powdered glitter throughout Kayci’s hair and across her shoulders. Penny helped Kayci into her dress and laced up the beautiful corset back.
“It was fun getting all dolled up,” Kayci says. “I felt like a princess.”
At about 2 p.m. Kayci’s date Ryan Turner, 17, arrived at the Fadler’s house to take pre-prom pictures. Kayci and Ryan have been dating for over a year. They have gone to school together since second grade but started dating after they had a class together last year.
“We had speech class together, and he always copied my homework,” Kayci says.
After taking pictures in front of the Fadler’s home, it was time to head to Shelter Gardens. Taking pre-prom pictures at Shelter Gardens is a tradition for Hallsville High School. Mothers and their daughters couldn’t tell Kayci enough how gorgeous she looked in her dress. Kayci and Ryan took pictures with their group of friends then headed to dinner before arriving at the Elks Lodge for the grand march.
The grand march is a ceremony where the girls and their dates are announced as they arrive at the prom. Since the theme was Hollywood, the announcer introduced the couples as “the nominee for best actress is” and then said who the girl was escorted by as they walked across a red carpet stage.
“It was really fun but I was nervous to walk in front of everyone,” Kayci says.
The night was filled with laughter and dancing. The “Casper Slide” and slow country songs were big hits, and Kayci and her friends were left counting down the days until their senior prom.
“We’ve already started thinking of themes for next year,” Kayci says. “Maybe Las Vegas?”
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