PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - Although weather conditions postponed the highly-anticipated SpaceX rocket launch, the rain didn’t bring down the spirits of spectators who came to watch the historic event.
Jennifer Ali Cook of Pembroke Pines made the trip to Titusville with her parents to watch the launch.
The 32-year-old was born with Down syndrome and has always been a fan of Space.
“I like coloring in my coloring book,” Cook said. “I have the moon with the craters, the Saturn and the rocket. I used to study science in school.”
“The doctor who delivered her, while they were sewing my wife up –C-section– called me out and said, ‘Think about putting her up for adoption. She’s never going to learn anything,'” said her father, Rick Cook. “She had already bonded by holding my finger, so we took her home, my wife was a special ed teacher, and we just never held her back.”
“I never knew how far she would go, but my husband and I just said, ‘We’re going to do whatever we can,’ and we just decided from the time she was 10 days old she will experience everything,” said Cook’s mother.
Those experiences, included traveling to the Space Coast to watch a rocket launch.
Cook has held a job at Publix for several years and knows how to ride a motorcycle.
Her father is an amateur pilot and said sometimes, when she is in the co-pilot seat, he will let her take the controls.
Cook said she is a little disappointed about the last-minute scrub of the launch, but her parents said they will try to come back to watch it on Saturday.
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