In the water, growing 16-year-old is in his element
Maybe it's the enveloping warmth of the water or its soothing vibrations as it roars from the faucet.
No one knows for sure why Jeremey Conaway is so obsessed with taking a bath. But he is.
His mother said if Jeremey had his way, he'd probably spend all of his waking hours in the tub.
"He loves being in the water," Cyndi Conaway said of her 16-year-old son, who is deaf and blind and cannot speak. "He'd never get out of the water if he could."
Having something to entertain and relax Jeremey is becoming increasingly important. The growing teenager is physically stronger than his mother, and moving him from activity to activity is more difficult for Cyndi.
"I can't pick him up and move him. He's like a boulder," Cyndi Conaway said.
Jeremey also grows bored more easily lately - especially since the family's only vehicle, a truck, was stolen a few months ago.
"Up here, there's not a whole lot to do," Cyndi Conaway said of life outside the tiny rural town of North San Juan in Nevada County.
Jeremey attends a special education program at Nevada Union High School during the day. After he's dropped off at the family's house after school, he's fed a snack, and then his mom and a friend try to entice him to jump on the trampoline for a while. He needs the exercise, she said. Then, invariably, Jeremey heads for the tub.
Cyndi Conaway is hoping that Book of Dreams readers will help the family buy a portable spa, so Jeremey, who is getting too big for the tub, can have more space in the water.
"I love him. I want more for him to do is all," Cyndi Conaway said.