Deacon passes sacrament despite having no arms
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Alex Brotherson came into this world with no arms and only a single finger protruding out of his right shoulder.
To the casual observer, Alex doesn't miss the arms he never had. The youngest of three brothers, at 12 years old he participates in many of the activities endemic to boys his age by using his feet to do tasks normally reserved for hands — things like playing video games, surfing the Internet, playing baseball and even riding four-wheel all-terrain vehicles.
"The four-wheeler has the throttle up on the handle bar," explains Jeff Brotherson, Alex's father. "He just kind of sits back and uses his feet to steer."
Although Alex doesn't let his disability deter him from embracing life (he goes paintballing, washes dishes, plays the guitar, et al.), the one thing he cannot do is simultaneously walk and use his feet as de facto hands. After all, his dexterous feet can't be in two places at the same time. So passing the sacrament has to be off-limits to Alex the deacon, right?
Think again. In a life defined daily by obstacles overcome, Alex passes the sacrament in the Taylorsville Utah West Stake with an assist from a custom-made plastic tray.
"We anticipated that he was going to need some kind of assistance in order to pass the sacrament," said Thayne Hopkin, Alex's deacons quorum adviser. "We met with [a plastic fabrication company] and Alex and his mother [Jenny], and decided what we needed to hold the tray so that Alex could handle it and be able to carry the tray."
The resulting design features a flat plastic surface framed by a two-inch retaining wall and is large enough to hold either a bread or water sacrament tray. It can be securely fastened to Alex's chest area with the help of two nylon straps — one going around his waist and the other around his neck.
"We figured we needed something that could hold onto him rather than him holding it," his dad quipped.
Once Alex's special tray was in play, Bishop Chad Francom slightly tweaked the sacrament-passing procedure.
"We just made sure his 'route' put him next to somebody who knew how to assist him with giving him his own bread and his own water," Bishop Francom said.
Alex's courage resonates deeply with those close enough to him to realize the depths of his determination and tenacity.
"Alex is an inspiration to me personally," said Brother Hopkin. "He, by all rights, could fall back and expect the world to take care of him because of his disability, but he does all he possibly can by himself. He just has such a desire to serve and to participate in the [sacrament] ordinance that he overcomes a lot of obstacles just because of his desire to be successful."
Bishop Francom summed up his feelings: "If a 12-year-old boy without arms can pass the sacrament, I can do anything in the Church."
