I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Off-Topic => Off-Topic: Talk about anything you want. => Topic started by: okarol on October 19, 2006, 04:49:37 PM
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An amazing story...
The next time you feel down, or think you just can't do what you are asked to, or are trying to do, play this video.
(see link at end)
READ:
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
'He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. 'No way,'' Dick says he was told. 'There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, 'Dad, I want to do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described 'porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. 'Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. 'I was sore for two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. 'Dad,'' he typed, 'when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
'No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? 'No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for 'the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
'No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. 'If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, 'you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
'The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, 'is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
go here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE for the video. (copy and paste it if the link isn't clickable)
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Cool story and video. I believe this video is also under the thread favorite videos.
:thx; okarol
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I saw a bit of the video at church on Father's Day.
It is so moving to see.
Thanks for sharing that with us.
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Cool story and video. I believe this video is also under the thread favorite videos.
:thx; okarol
You are correct sluff, and here is the link: http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=396.msg13862#msg13862 :thumbup;
Very emotional video and being a father it brought tears to my eyes.
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I only wish I was half the Father he is. :beer1;
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I had not seen that before. Great clip.
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Oh Sluff, you are, I can tell by your posts that you
are a greattttttttttttt Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Ya I saw that in that other thread. That is an amazing story. Wish my dad had been like that instead of telling me I was fat when I had my transplant ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52rJd9GX10
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It's amazing how easily we can hurt our children by what we say. My Dad always told me I wouldn't amount to anything but I aim to prove him wrong.
Thanks OB.
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I only wish I was half the Father he is. :beer1;
Sluff, from what i have learned about you, not only are you an awesome dad, your one helluva friend :beer1; Cheers to you amigo ;) :2thumbsup;
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Angie and Sluff, it is sad that a parent (or anyone else) would
make that kind of remarks. You are both such strong people and always
encouraging us on and are important and valuable to us. IMO people
who say things like that are so unhappy with themselves and then become
very critical of others. JMO.
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Angie and Sluff, it is sad that a parent (or anyone else) would
make that kind of remarks. You are both such strong people and always
encouraging us on and are important and valuable to us. IMO people
who say things like that are so unhappy with themselves and then become
very critical of others. JMO.
That is true. My father suffers from undiagnosed depression. So it just makes sense. But I have always wished that I had supportive and encouraging parents. My mom is there for me now but she was never encouraging and even kicked me out of the house after I had energy after my transplant I got when I was 16. Since I had all this new energy I NEVER had (since I was sick since birth) and didn't have ANY friends .. I wanted to make up for lost time. I went out, made friends, hung out with them, started to get a little confidence, and at 18 I had to find a place to live with only $900 savings. I have been on my own since.
My brother is now a father and he lets it be known that he will NEVER abandon his daughter as he felt his own father had (my father was always in our lives but just not really there for us).
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Appreaciate the kind words. :thx;
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I guess I am very fortunate.
My Dad is a hero. He grew up in southern Ohio in a little unpainted shanty type
building that even had space between some of the boards. He was the oldest of
3 sons and their Mom died when he was about 9. When in later yrs. he moved, he built his own home
and took his Dad with them to live. He never saw himself as a poor man but he never did have
much as far as material things. He retired and after Mom died went back to work p-t
until he was about 83 and passed at 85. I aways remember how at the holidays he was always going
back down to so. Ohio to take money or hams or turkeys to help the people there who had
nothing. I remember how he helped a family where the Father had cancer. He was a giving
person. One time he got 2 tombstones for old friends because they didn't have one, went down
and dug and put them in. I'll never forget when he died, the many, many people who came and how they respected him. He did a lot of kind things to be remembered for.
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I guess I am very fortunate.
My Dad is a hero. He grew up in southern Ohio in a little unpainted shanty type
building that even had space between some of the boards. He was the oldest of
3 sons and their Mom died when he was about 9. When in later yrs. he moved, he built his own home
and took his Dad with them to live. He never saw himself as a poor man but he never did have
much as far as material things. He retired and after Mom died went back to work p-t
until he was about 83 and passed at 85. I aways remember how at the holidays he was always going
back down to so. Ohio to take money or hams or turkeys to help the people there who had
nothing. I remember how he helped a family where the Father had cancer. He was a giving
person. One time he got 2 tombstones for old friends because they didn't have one, went down
and dug and put them in. I'll never forget when he died, the many, many people who came and how they respected him. He did a lot of kind things to be remembered for.
WOW! Now that IS a hero!! :thumbup; :thumbup;