BobbyB
04-26-2009, 10:38 AM
Calvert celebrates life
By LINDON DODD
Local Columnist
“I don’t have any fear of dying because I know where I am going.”
— Tim Calvert
“My birth mother attempted to have a coat-hanger abortion when she was pregnant with me,” Tim Calvert said. He was told this by family members.
Tim Calvert is a survivor. Surviving with ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease — is just another challenge for a man who has met so many in his 49 years.
Tim wants to be a teacher now, just as he taught so many families during his nursing career how to deal with terminally ill family members. We discussed in depth how a Christian-nation America probably handles death worse than so many other cultures.
He said, “Death is not to be a fearful type of thing, a sad thing. It should be a celebration of a person’s life.”
He told me that just last weekend a group of friends, including his adoptive mother — who is an eight-year cancer survivor — had a celebration of life at the house.
Tim wants to educate people about how to approach and react to disabled persons or anyone using a wheelchair. In the short time he has been in a chair, he notices the stares, or somehow worse, the obvious avoidance.
By far, the largest majority of people using a wheelchair were not born that way. Most were for much of their life fully able-bodied people who either had an accident, illness or other medical issue that arose. He would encourage people to come up and talk with him, especially young people. Most people using a wheelchair are clear-minded and intelligent. It’s only their body that is incapacitated, not their thinking, hearing or perception, and almost none of them have a condition that is contagious.
The only time Tim has ever become emotionally animated is when the subject of ex-Louisville disc jockey Todd Kelly was on the table. Kelly faked having ALS and defrauded people out of $150,000 by playing on their sympathy. Having a rare disease — statistically, only two out of every 100,000 people in the population are diagnosed with ALS every year — already means less research dollars. “It’s gotten a real bad rap. I really hope that one day he [Kelly] knows what it’s like to have ALS because what he did was truly unforgivable.”
I spoke with Tim this past week and with his best friend and caregiver, Dennis Thacker. Tim is, as always, upbeat and positive despite some more progression. He can only hold his head up for short times without wearing the brace. Dennis told me that a recent public dining outing at a Mexican restaurant might be among their last as Tim was aware of so many people staring as he struggled to eat.
Dennis had to hold his head up to assist and swallowing has become an issue just in the past weeks.
Tim’s days motoring around Skip Jacks and interacting with the patrons as an unofficial ma*tre de/greeter also might become increasingly rare. While I accept that Tim is not afraid of death, I think his real fear is to end up home-bound or bedridden and isolated from the everyday interaction with people.
Tim Calvert has always been a social animal. Tim believes that God spared him from death of that heart attack of a couple of years ago for a reason. That reason is to continue to educate all of us about things of real life.
If I were to write the ending to this story, it would be a happy one. Real life is not neatly tied up and wrapped in a bow like that and placed under the gift tree. Tim has been searching for any medical research team who wants to use him, in his own words, as a “guinea pig.”
He knows that nothing will help him personally, but that only with such medical trials will future victims be spared such a cruel fate. He was encouraged by President Barack Obama’s loosening of the restrictions on stem-cell research; however, as of now, no human clinical trials are being conducted on ALS patients.
Tim Calvert makes a conscious choice every morning when he wakes up and chooses not to be dying of ALS. Rather, he chooses to be living with ALS. To be in his company is to distinctly know that difference.
I don’t, nor do I think Tim, want to use almost euphemistic statements such as, “Tim Calvert is bravely fighting this disease.” I would suggest that better phraseology would be that Tim is accepting the challenge that has presented itself to him by virtue of his extraordinary faith.
He continues to faithfully pray and believe in miracles. He would never want your sympathy, but will gladly and gratefully accept your prayers. I suspect at some point he will sit on the ramp in front of his house this weekend and watch the beautiful rock garden that he and God have made bloom so beautifully this spring.
And if God does permit miracles in modern times, I hope Tim might look down and feel the ordinary satisfaction of wiggling his toes in the warm sunlight.
Lindon Dodd is an Otisco resident who is a freelance writer and can be reached at lindon.dodd@hotmail.com
http://www.news-tribune.net/opinion/local_story_115233554.html?keyword=secondarystory
By LINDON DODD
Local Columnist
“I don’t have any fear of dying because I know where I am going.”
— Tim Calvert
“My birth mother attempted to have a coat-hanger abortion when she was pregnant with me,” Tim Calvert said. He was told this by family members.
Tim Calvert is a survivor. Surviving with ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease — is just another challenge for a man who has met so many in his 49 years.
Tim wants to be a teacher now, just as he taught so many families during his nursing career how to deal with terminally ill family members. We discussed in depth how a Christian-nation America probably handles death worse than so many other cultures.
He said, “Death is not to be a fearful type of thing, a sad thing. It should be a celebration of a person’s life.”
He told me that just last weekend a group of friends, including his adoptive mother — who is an eight-year cancer survivor — had a celebration of life at the house.
Tim wants to educate people about how to approach and react to disabled persons or anyone using a wheelchair. In the short time he has been in a chair, he notices the stares, or somehow worse, the obvious avoidance.
By far, the largest majority of people using a wheelchair were not born that way. Most were for much of their life fully able-bodied people who either had an accident, illness or other medical issue that arose. He would encourage people to come up and talk with him, especially young people. Most people using a wheelchair are clear-minded and intelligent. It’s only their body that is incapacitated, not their thinking, hearing or perception, and almost none of them have a condition that is contagious.
The only time Tim has ever become emotionally animated is when the subject of ex-Louisville disc jockey Todd Kelly was on the table. Kelly faked having ALS and defrauded people out of $150,000 by playing on their sympathy. Having a rare disease — statistically, only two out of every 100,000 people in the population are diagnosed with ALS every year — already means less research dollars. “It’s gotten a real bad rap. I really hope that one day he [Kelly] knows what it’s like to have ALS because what he did was truly unforgivable.”
I spoke with Tim this past week and with his best friend and caregiver, Dennis Thacker. Tim is, as always, upbeat and positive despite some more progression. He can only hold his head up for short times without wearing the brace. Dennis told me that a recent public dining outing at a Mexican restaurant might be among their last as Tim was aware of so many people staring as he struggled to eat.
Dennis had to hold his head up to assist and swallowing has become an issue just in the past weeks.
Tim’s days motoring around Skip Jacks and interacting with the patrons as an unofficial ma*tre de/greeter also might become increasingly rare. While I accept that Tim is not afraid of death, I think his real fear is to end up home-bound or bedridden and isolated from the everyday interaction with people.
Tim Calvert has always been a social animal. Tim believes that God spared him from death of that heart attack of a couple of years ago for a reason. That reason is to continue to educate all of us about things of real life.
If I were to write the ending to this story, it would be a happy one. Real life is not neatly tied up and wrapped in a bow like that and placed under the gift tree. Tim has been searching for any medical research team who wants to use him, in his own words, as a “guinea pig.”
He knows that nothing will help him personally, but that only with such medical trials will future victims be spared such a cruel fate. He was encouraged by President Barack Obama’s loosening of the restrictions on stem-cell research; however, as of now, no human clinical trials are being conducted on ALS patients.
Tim Calvert makes a conscious choice every morning when he wakes up and chooses not to be dying of ALS. Rather, he chooses to be living with ALS. To be in his company is to distinctly know that difference.
I don’t, nor do I think Tim, want to use almost euphemistic statements such as, “Tim Calvert is bravely fighting this disease.” I would suggest that better phraseology would be that Tim is accepting the challenge that has presented itself to him by virtue of his extraordinary faith.
He continues to faithfully pray and believe in miracles. He would never want your sympathy, but will gladly and gratefully accept your prayers. I suspect at some point he will sit on the ramp in front of his house this weekend and watch the beautiful rock garden that he and God have made bloom so beautifully this spring.
And if God does permit miracles in modern times, I hope Tim might look down and feel the ordinary satisfaction of wiggling his toes in the warm sunlight.
Lindon Dodd is an Otisco resident who is a freelance writer and can be reached at lindon.dodd@hotmail.com
http://www.news-tribune.net/opinion/local_story_115233554.html?keyword=secondarystory