Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Daryl's Smile

I spent the summer of 1978, as a volunteer working with mentally handicapped, and was fortunate to have made a very special friendship. As part of my daily routine I was assigned to spend time with a special friend for one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. My friend was Daryl Pearson. Daryl had not always been mentally handicapped, and a couple years earlier, he had been a graduate student at the University of Colorado working on designing an artificial heart. While attending college, Daryl had been involved in a serious motorcycle accident and suffered major brain damage. The first time I met Daryl, I saw a 20 something man with medium length light brown hair, sitting in a wheel chair. He only had the use of his right arm, and was unable to talk – the only sounds he was able to make were humming noises. Wow, now what can I do with Daryl for two hours each day? He was too big for me to take in and out of his wheelchair and we couldn’t chat about anything, because Daryl simply couldn’t understand…at least that is what I was told. As it ended up, many days I would just push Daryl around the complex. Sometimes we would pull up to a park bench and just sit there and watch as people walked on by. I could see that Daryl would watch the activity and he seemed to be somewhat interested. As the days went on, it seemed to me that I was noticing more of a smile on Daryl’s face. I didn’t remember seeing it that first day, but I grew to really enjoy his smile. I realized there was more to Daryl that what I could see on the surface, and wished we could communicate with each other. After a while I started to believe that my purpose was simply to get Daryl out of his resident hall to get some air. Then one day the other volunteer’s and myself had the day off. When we returned the following day, one of the employees told me that when I didn’t show up to spend time with Daryl, he tried to wheel himself out the door, by using his one good arm. Daryl had never tried to move himself before, and they were shocked when he tried it the day I hadn’t shown up. Oh my, even at the age of 15, I realized that even though we could not talk to each other, we were communicating just by spending time with each other. The rest of the summer I looked forward to simply spending time with Daryl, seeing his smile, and sitting with him as we watched the people pass by. That was one great summer and I am glad God spoke to me on the radio [“Still Listening” post from June 26, 2010]. Daryl wasn't able to complete his artificial heart, but he made a big impression on mine with that pleasant smile of his!

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