In the hallways of Shriners Children’s™, you can usually hear Clara before you see her. When she’s not singing songs from her favorite musical The Greatest Showman, she’s making up her own tunes to put her feelings into words, something she’s done since the age of three. 

“It’s easier to sing my feelings sometimes,” Clara admits, sharing that singing has always been a part of how she makes sense of both the happy moments and the hard ones that have come with years of treatment for infantile scoliosis. Through it all, however, Clara has maintained a sunny outlook and an indomitable spirit, one that has inspired her family to describe her as “bent, but never broken.” 

“I’ve always heard that a child who sings is a happy child, and that couldn’t be truer for Clara,” says her mother, Kayla. “She always seems at peace.”  

“Bent but never broken”

Clara’s journey with Shriners Children’s began long before she was able to........

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