News-Record.com

The death of 22-year-old Cory McInnis saddens many young adults in High Point but also leaves them with inspiring memories.

The following was written by Rachel Perry, a 2000 High Point Central graduate (UNC '04) who now lives in Atlanta:

A fellow High Point Central graduate said, "Cory was the one kid we had around who made it ok to be different."

Cory McInnis definitely did that. He didn't let those differences stop him from doing anything. Even when he was a freshman in high school, I remember thinking that he had a more active social life than I did as a junior.

Despite the challenges of his wheelchair, Cory did everything the rest of us did, and with a better attitude. He would observe things happening around him and it seemed like he was saving up his witty comments for just the right moment. I remember always being surprised at the quickness of his hilarious sarcasm.

During my junior year of high school, I used to take notes for Cory in his math class and then we'd eat lunch together. I had known Cory as a child, but I hadn't ever really gotten to know him as a teenager. For the first week or so he didn't say too much during class or lunch, but then one day he started injecting comments during my chattering. In two minutes flat I saw how funny he was and how much he picked up on that I hadn't realized before. Cory had an opinion about everything and everyone, just like I did. From then on it was just one diatribe after another, and I loved every minute of it.


I count myself lucky that I had the opportunity to get to know Cory as someone more than the kid in the wheelchair or my friend's cousin. I think everyone was inspired in some fashion by the way he lived his life. He was a fighter to the very end, and did it with a smile.

Cory is one of the people in life who teaches each of those around him something different. It might be a lesson in tolerance, positivity, humor or even faith. The ideas and emotions that he stirred in everyone will forever keep his memory alive in the hearts of his family and friends.