| Robert Lewis Stevenson was handicapped from | | | | never graduated because of his cerebral palsy was |
| youth by poor health, he struggled all his life against | | | | still there trying to finish his degree. He was in terrible |
| tuberculosis. Despite this, he graduated from law | | | | straits but he refused to give up. As his situation |
| school and then devoted his entire life to writing. He | | | | deteriorated, he struggled harder. It was a pitiful sight of |
| said that there was never a day that he felt well | | | | extreme courage. |
| enough to work, but he said that if he had not | | | | My sister suffered from polio. She was crippled from |
| overcome that feeling, nothing would have been | | | | age three and passed away at age nineteen. She |
| accomplished. | | | | became an "adult" when she was very young |
| Fortunately, not all of us suffer from such poor health | | | | because of her health problems. When I was a boy, I |
| all of our life. Those who do, usually learn to live with | | | | use to help her with her iron and leather braces which |
| their disabilities. The rest of us may have a time in our | | | | were always falling apart. Finally, her thirteenth surgery |
| life where our health fails us and we feel helpless and | | | | allowed her to walk with a special shoe. She was a |
| depressed. Depression leads to inactivity and as | | | | good writer so we know her thoughts. Her body was |
| Stevenson said, nothing is accomplished. | | | | weak but her brain and will was strong. |
| The other day, my wife and I went to our | | | | So many suffer under so many different conditions. |
| granddaughter's wedding. There, I saw a young man | | | | We all should be concerned and try to do our part to |
| struggling on those arm crutches we see vets using | | | | buoy up those that should have our encouragement. |
| too often. He said, "Don' t you remember me? I helped | | | | They may not want our sympathy but they will |
| you move from Arizona." | | | | welcome our love and support. |
| I did remember him as a healthy young missionary. In | | | | Each of us is handicapped in some way. I love music |
| fact, I had delivered some of his personal effects to | | | | but have no talent for music-but I have instilled the love |
| his family when we got to Idaho. He and his companion | | | | for music in my children who are musically talented and |
| had helped move our furniture into the moving trucks. | | | | they have done the same for their children. Two of us |
| I learned from his family members that he had been in | | | | tone deaf men at church are looking for two more |
| an automobile accident. He was told that he would | | | | tone deaf men so that we can start a quartet. I can't |
| never walk again. But this young man was tough, had | | | | overcome this deficiency. I look for other ways to |
| heart and he had faith. Mix that together and you have | | | | make something valuable for this human race. |
| a young man who can walk-although it takes every | | | | Maybe that is the answer. If we can't do what we |
| fiber of his being to do it. As the moves, the | | | | would like to do, maybe we can find something that |
| perspiration pours down his face. His face grimaces | | | | we can do despite our handicaps. We need to be |
| from the physical torture. He walks! | | | | persistent at what we want to do and have faith in |
| I was told that he has made great progress, that he is | | | | ourselves to be able to do it. We may still fail and have |
| doing much better now than a year ago. At the | | | | to try something else. But we will die trying. |
| wedding reception, later in the day, he told me that he | | | | I'm handicapped too because I'm over weight. Let's |
| had just graduated from college and was applying to | | | | see. I would like to be much thinner. |
| medical school. | | | | O.K. |
| When I was in college, and again five years later when | | | | I'll be hungry instead of fat. |
| I was in graduate school, a fellow student who had | | | | |