When Treva Rice overheard her friend Lillie Willet speaking to a car dealership about a handicap van, she knew she needed to take action. “As long as I have known Lillie Willet, her name has been synonymous with the community of Cedarville. Anytime anyone needs anything at all, they know that Lillie will do whatever it takes to make it happen. Lillie and I had been praying for God to provide a way for her to get the van,” says Treva. “Lillie never asked anyone for help, but I knew the people of our community would want to help her in her time of need because she has helped everyone who ever needed it.” Treva started contacting area parents about Lillie’s need, and Sandi Dunn (another of Lillie’s many friends) began the plan for a fundraiser. The community came together for a benefit auction held at the Cedarville High School gymnasium. In a matter of days, enough money was raised for Lillie to purchase the van. “God, community, and friends have blessed me beyond words!” Lillie says of the outpouring of support.
Lillie was born with a condition called Congenital Femoral Deficiency – she was born with no left femur so her hip ball was sitting on her knee ball, and she had a foot where her knee should have been. Lillie says she is grateful to her parents for allowing doctors to amputate her foot at the age of 5 so she could wear an artificial leg. She started school on crutches and shared her first artificial leg with the entire kindergarten class. She thinks of her classmates as family and has never felt different because of her condition.
Lillie met her husband Keith Willet in 1989 on a blind date. “I told Keith first thing that I had an artificial leg, he was like ‘okay?’ It never mattered to him. He has been here and taken great care of me through it all. He is a wonderful daddy to our son Dustin and wife Hannah, and our daughter Addy.
Despite having a stroke in 2005, and then breaking the bone/ball in her hip due to a fall in 2018, Lillie has remained active with the Friends of the Cedarville Public Library, Cedarville Cheer, Uniontown Baptist Church, Stuff the Bus (school supplies), Cedarville Schools Stakeholders, Cedarville FFA, and feeding students before sporting events.
After the fall that broke her hip bone, Lillie saw several doctors, three of them told her they didn’t know how she ever walked. Lillie told them, “By the Grace of God and my momma telling me to, I did!” Lillie gives credit to her mother for always encouraging her and never allowing her to be handicapped.
Speaking of her current situation, Lillie says, “They (doctors) have not found a way to make it possible to walk with my artificial leg. Any reconstruction is at an 80% failure. It’s just not going to happen. So, after 40 years of independence and walking, I am now on crutches and a wheelchair. I am still blessed! I had 40 good years of mobility!”
