Sunday, February 14, 1999

Abby's Days In The Sun Sundown brings freedom

A gleeful Abby, sans suit and clothes, frolics in a fountain at Walt Disney World. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        Abby's not afraid of the dark. She embraces it. It's the only time the Middletown girl emerges from the shadows and can act like a normal 5-year-old — one who romps and plays totally uninhibited.

        With her special “space suit” in the closet, she dresses in jeans or shorts and blends in with the crowd. Freedom comes when sundown arrives.

        “I love it at night,” she said skipping along in a shopping area at Walt Disney World, dressed in her favorite Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt and jeans. “I look like other people when I don't have my space suit on. Just like the other little kids. And nobody notices my scars,” reminders of the many surgeries she's had to remove skin cancers caused by the sun and ultraviolet lights.

        Abby suddenly squeals with delight upon seeing a fountain spraying jets of water high into the air. She rips off her clothes and leaps into the spray. Wearing only Scooby-Doo underwear, Abby jitterbugs as water squirts her pale body, which looks even whiter in the fountain lights.

        “Abby is totally different at night. Literally a night and day difference,” said her mother, Caroline Perkins-Banks.

        The little girl's laughter echoes in the night.

MORE: A Tristate boy also has Abby's disease

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Main story
'Someday, Abby, someday'
'Look at all that water'
Real-life Cinderella
Rude stares, comments hurt
Sundown brings freedom
World opening for Indiana boy, too