WILDWOOD — “Ouch! You hit my ear,” shouts 9-year-old Carl, his warm brown eyes turning indignant as a skinnier, turbo-charged version of himself bounces from floor to couch in a flash after accidentally bumping his brother’s head.

“I’m sorry,” says the hyper one, who knows enough to keep moving. Carl, who doesn’t like to be bothered when he’s watching Pokemon cartoons, outweighs William by 10 pounds.

“They fight all day long. They’re a little rambunctious,” says Theresa Long, flashing a bemused smile.

Mom’s always concerned when Carl’s tender ears are involved, but she learned long ago not to sweat the small stuff.

For the longest time, there was precious little small stuff.

Married at 16, Theresa was a mother by 17. Of twins. Premature twins. Twins who didn’t weigh 7 pounds between them. Twins who almost didn’t live long enough to experience Pokemon cartoons and playful wrestling.

“They were born nine weeks early,” said Theresa from the couch in her modest two-bedroom concrete-block home in Wildwood. “Carl had an infection, but they didn’t know what kind.”

Doctors were also concerned that the babies might have spinal bifida.

The boys arrived in the wee hours of Aug. 12, 1997, Carl at 2:11 and William two minutes later.

Neither was breathing.

“They were born in Leesburg, then airlifted to Shands,” said Theresa. “Carl was 4 pounds, 6 ounces. William was 2 pounds and 3 ounces — literally half his size.”

For months, the young waitress and her husband made daily trips to the neonatal intensive care unit at Shands Children’s Hospital. Little William was connected to a heart monitor and fed through a shunt. He lived in an oxygen tent. Carl was 1 month old when he had surgery to remove water on the brain. And he was completely deaf.

Carl came home at 2 months old. William left Shands two months later.

The plan

After the Long boys celebrated their first birthday, Theresa made a momentous decision.

“I had a good friend say to me, ‘Are you going to be a waitress your whole life?’” Theresa said. “That made me stop and think. I didn’t really have a plan.”

As a kid, Theresa wanted to be a lawyer. But that aspiration vanished as romance with Carl Long bloomed.

“We met when I was 13. Got married when I was 16. No one could talk us out of it, so my mom and dad signed the papers,” recalled Theresa. “I was 17. My husband was 19.”

Her sons’ medical problems led to a new goal.

“They’re the reason I went into nursing,” said Theresa, who enrolled in the school of nursing at Lake-Sumter Community College. “I wanted to get training so I could take better care of them.”

She graduated, got a job, and the family lived happily ever after. That’s the way it would happen in the movies. But Theresa was in Wildwood, not Hollywood.

Theresa did graduate, but there was no talk of “happily ever after” when Carl Sr. moved out.

“It was mutual. We had grown apart,” said Theresa, who returned to waitressing and sought personal time. “We got married too young.”

Theresa worried about getting by on one income, but at least she didn’t have to worry about saving $3,000 for new molds when Carl outgrew his hearing aids. Carl’s hearing loss qualified the family for Supplemental Security Income.

That soon changed.

“I was working as a waitress at Olive Garden when I learned that I was making too much money and we were no longer eligible,” said Theresa, who estimates she earned $25,000 to $30,000 a year. “I was angry, but there wasn’t a whole lot I could do.”

Theresa, who had briefly worked as a nurse at The Villages Regional Hospital before becoming a waitress, decided to resume pursuing her nursing career. She’s able to do that because she has a strong support system. Her parents, ex-husband and mother-in-law help with the twins when Theresa works the 7 a.m.-7 p.m. shift at Citrus Memorial Hospital in Inverness.

Blue skies

Life isn’t easy for Theresa, but she’s not complaining.

“We’re doing good. We’re in a real good spot,” says the 26-year-old nurse. “I’m easy to please. You do the best you can with what you have.”

That’s not to say every day is blue skies and rainbows. After all, boys will be boys. Which explains the latest family crisis: Carl losing not one, but both, hearing aids.

“He lost them somewhere between the car, the house and school. We never have found them,” said Theresa.

Carl would have to improvise by reading lips until Mom came up with $1,500 per hearing aid.

“I have insurance through work, but it doesn’t cover hearing aids,” said Theresa.

Last year, Carl languished in silence for months until North Sumter Intermediate School Principal Dana Williams found a guardian angel at a Wildwood Kiwanis meeting.

“The principal of the primary school approached me because she knew I was involved in Kiwanis and asked me if there was any group in The Villages that would help a kid who needed a hearing aid,” recalled Dick Hoffman, a resident of Villa de Laguna. “I said, ‘I’m also a member of Sertoma, and one of the things we do is help hearing-impaired kids.’”

Thanks to Sertoma, Carl is now wearing two new hearing aids.

“We were happy to do it,” said Hoffman. “It was a great thing for us to be able to help with.”

Another obstacle overcome, Theresa is focusing on what she sees as a bright future.

“Healthwise, they’re doing real well,” she said. “Right now, the only thing we’re dealing with is the hearing loss. I just want them to grow up healthy, go to college and do well for themselves.”

And what might Carl’s future hold?

“I always say he’s going to make movies someday. Or be an artist. I got him a dry-erase board because he’s always going through so much paper,” said Theresa as she puts her arm around the shy third-grader.

Yes, life is good. Don’t be fooled by the dirt yard or concrete blocks that serve as steps into a half-finished porch — “I ran out of money,” Theresa says.

She may not have everything she wants, but she insists she has everything she needs.

“I look back, and people ask, ‘How did you do it?’ I honestly don’t know,” said Theresa. “But we’re doing great. I have a good job, and I have health insurance. I wouldn’t change a thing, the good, the bad or the ugly.”

Gary Corsair is a senior writer with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 7907, or gary.corsair@thevillagesmedia.com.