Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Ruth Davis-Leonard helps her grandmother, Shirley Wood, put on her jacket as they prepare to head out to vote Tuesday. Davis-Leonard, 18, will receive the Governor's Caregiver Recognition Award later this month for tending to Wood, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.

Ruth Davis-Leonard (center) and her sister, Sara Davis-Leonard, help their grandmother vote Tuesday at Fishburn Park Elementary School in Roanoke.

Ruth Davis-Leonard helps her grandmother into their van after voting Tuesday. "I love taking care of my grandmother," Davis-Leonard says. "I feel that what I'm doing for her is what God wants me to do."

Ruth Davis-Leonard, 18, awoke at 6:30 Tuesday morning, checked her grandmother's blood sugar, gave her a shot of insulin, dropped medication in her eyes and fed her several vitamins and pills.

Davis-Leonard cooked pancakes and bacon -- "Bacon is her favorite," she explained -- walked her down the driveway to their minivan and snapped in her seat belt buckle, the same way she has countless times before, and drove her to the polling station.

It's a routine the teenager became accustomed to during her junior and senior years of high school as she cared for her grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. At the time her mother and stepfather were caring for her grandfather, and her sister was away at college. On Nov. 17, Davis-Leonard will be one of two Roanokers who will receive the Governor's Caregiver Recognition Award at a ceremony in Richmond. The second will be Karen Switzer, who cares for a granddaughter with spina bifida.

"I love taking care of my grandmother," said the rosy-cheeked and smiley Davis-Leonard. "I feel that what I'm doing for her is what God wants me to do."

Her grandmother, Shirley Wood, 72, suffered a stroke on Nov. 23, 2007, which happened to be Davis-Leonard's birthday. When she got the news, the teenager resented her grandmother's illness. But when her post-stroke, disoriented grandmother didn't recognize her, she forgot all about her birthday party.

Davis-Leonard's mother, Natalie Leonard, a Roanoke nurse, was an only child. And after Wood moved in with them, Leonard was traveling almost daily to Lynchburg to care for her father, who suffered from renal cancer and later died. Meanwhile, Davis-Leonard's only sister, Sara, 21, was away in college.

So instead of hanging out with friends after school or at slumber parties, Davis-Leonard learned to check her grandmother's blood sugar level, learned to give her insulin shots in the arms, legs and stomach, and learned to ration sugary drinks for the woman who in her 32 years as a bookkeeper for a Lynchburg flower shop ate an average of seven candy bars a day. And on her way to and from high school, Davis-Leonard would ferry her grandmother to and from day care.

"I don't know what we would have done without Ruth's help while I was working and caring for my father," Leonard said. "With her help we were able to make sure my mother received good care and saw her recuperate from her stroke in leaps and bounds."

But it was no surprise that the teenager spent most of her spare high school time tending to her grandmother. When she was 3 years old and her father was dying from cancer, she would stock the refrigerator with ginger ale cans and declare, "Daddy, I'm helping you!" Roanoke Valley Christian School gave her its service award during her junior and senior years.

"She would come into school and you could tell she was already tired, but she always had a smile on her face," said Kristin Anthony, a close high school friend who now goes to college in Rhode Island. "Her love of God flows, and this is how she showed it."

In an essay she wrote for an English class her senior year, Davis-Leonard attributed her perseverance to her faith during the times her grandmother threw fits because her granddaughter was feeding her medicine and telling her she couldn't drink soda.

"Many days I am exhausted and I do not think I can go on," she wrote. "But I find out again and again that God gives me the ultimate strength to keep going."

Now that Davis-Leonard and her sister are both Liberty University students and Leonard no longer cares for her late father, hired caretakers cook for Wood, help her shower, and drive her to day care.

"It's weird when I come back home," Davis-Leonard said with a laugh. "They changed where I used to keep her medicine."

At the Fishburn Park Elementary School polling station, Davis-Leonard and her sister pulled a wheelchair out of the minivan and opened it for their grandmother. Davis-Leonard pushed her to the booth, and looked away. "I don't think I'm supposed to see who my grandma votes for," she said.

Then, the two sisters helped their grandmother back into the van. They drove her to the podiatrist, played boxing on the Nintendo Wii, and at 3 p.m., Davis-Leonard drove back to Lynchburg. She wants to be a special education teacher when she graduates, and she has classes today.