I grew up in Des Arc, Arkansas a small town of only 2,000 people. My family and I still live in the same rural farming area, about 10 miles outside of Des Arc.
I feel fortunate to have been raised on the family farm, where I was able to enjoy the environment, which consists mostly of farmland and woodland areas. I believe that growing up and working on the family farm attributed to how I see the world today, which is with an open mind towards everyone and everything.
Working the majority of my life before having my accident was definitely an asset in helping to make things somewhat easier after the accident also. You hear that hindsight is 20/20, but you really don�t realize to what extent until something serious happens to you or someone you love. It�s then when you start remembering how good you had everything before, but didn�t appreciate it at the time.
Ever since I was a young boy growing up, motorcycles had been a large part of my life. My first motorcycle was a Honda 50 mini-bike that I received when I was about 9 years old.
Later when Honda introduced the 3-wheel all terrain vehicles (ATV), dad purchased one for the farm and hunting.
I had many great times riding over the hills and through the woods with my friends. Basically wherever we had a mind to go! I also used them to check the fields because of their easy maneuverability in getting around in small tight places. I generally rode 3-wheel ATV's, as that was the main way farmers would get around, especially in areas where trucks generally didn't go.
I had been riding 3-wheel motorcycles for 10 years or more, with wrecks that were much worse than the one resulting in my paralysis.
It wasn't until Thanksgiving Day 1981, that I had my accident while riding around with my younger brother who w as only 10 years old at the time. We had been riding around most of the day, up and down the road and over rice levees behind my house. It was getting on toward the middle of the afternoon, when we decided to go our separate ways for a while.
My brother stayed around the neighbors house visiting, while I proceeded on down the road and started riding wheelies across an empty minnow pond. I had been doing that for a while, when I realized it was getting about time to go to my in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner. So I proceeded home, taking a short cut behind our neighbor's house (A trail that I had taking thousands of times before!) and across the same rice field I had been riding in earlier. It was then that while riding a wheelie across what I had believed to be a Flat (area without any levees) that I miscounted the levees. It was that unexpected levee that resulted in my sudden crash, that put my 3-wheeler into a corkscrew spin flying through the air and caused me to land on my upper back area and crushing one bone (C5) in my neck. This resulted in leaving me a Quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down.
The neighbors and my younger brother had witnessed the wreck and didn't think that much about it at first, until I hadn't gotten up like I normally would. My younger brother was the first to come and check on me. I instructed him to go back to the neighbor's house and have them call for the ambulance. While my neighbors were helping to keep the small insects off my face. My father and (my now ex-wife) were the next to hear about it. As you can imagine, everyone was extremely worried. However, I managed to stay calm and basically instructed everyone not to touch me or try to move me until the ambulance arrived.
I knew instantly what had occurred as the Indescribable sound echoed through my head. It was then that I accepted immediately what had happened and knew that everything was in the Lord's hands and that everything would be all right regardless of what the doctors might say later.
I was fortunate to have studied some First Aid while in High School, so I didn't panic or try to move or have anyone move me before the ambulance arrived.
I consider myself fortunate that I had such great faith to make it through everything without panicking.