Mary Annette Pember: Meskwaki family moves to save son's life

Quincy Grittmann has faith. Her faith, however, goes far beyond the ordinary definition as a religious belief. Hers is an explosion of surrender that she has pulled fiercely to her heart with both hands. To hear her describe her trust in the Creator is to be deeply humbled by the courage of this young mother.

“I have put my child’s life in the Creator’s hands and I know that no matter what happens it is going to be OK,” she said.

Grittmann of the Meskwaki and Ho Chunk tribes, is confident that her boundless faith and support of her Native family and community will sustain her as she embarks on the uncertain odyssey of a lifetime. On April 1, she and her little family are moving from the familiar in Tama, Iowa to the unknown in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She and her husband Brandon are moving to Colorado with their 3-year-old son, Braedy, so that Braedy can receive medical marijuana for the grand mal seizures he has had since he was 3 months old.

The decision to move from their close-knit community on the Meskwaki Settlement near the little town of Tama has not been made lightly. But after extensive research into the benefits of medical marijuana coupled with months in the hospital and watching her son suffer from the side effects and limited success of powerful drugs, she has decided the only option is to move to Colorado.