CELEBRATING DAVID Continued . . . .

For several years thereafter, this became a yearly ritual.  Dave, who was small for his age at that time and had light blonde hair and bright blue eyes, became a favorite with the clinic staff.  Dr. Gurd asked me to remind him to have a tennis ball handy whenever Dave was due to come in for his annual checkup.  Then he'd run through the entire routine for the benefit of the current crop of medical students and interns.  Dave never disappointed them.

He learned to drive a car.  We had bought a car with automatic transmission because we thought he would probably not be able to manage shifting.  He turned out to be the only one of our children who drives a standard shift car.

The summer before his senior year in high school, just after we had moved to a suburb of Boston, Dave wanted to get a job.  Another one of those "How will he ever?"  Who would hire him?  But the owner of a bookstore in nearby Canton did.  This was Dave's first job and he was so proud.  He filled shelves, moved heavy boxes, and worked the cash register.

When Dave was a preschooler, Ms. Padgett, the psychologist at the Cerebral Palsy Center in Syracuse, had said, "these kids with cerebral palsy don't usually do that well in school."  She told us to be prepared for the fact that he would probably be held back a few grades in school.  Since we brought all our children up to do their best at whatever they tried, we decided that this prediction did not have to come true.  Since Dave hadn't heard Ms. Padgett, he never knew that he wasn't expected to do well.  He never asked for any special considerations in school, studied hard, paid attention in class, and did his homework.  As a result, he got excellent grades in spite of the fact that he had to attend school in four different locations because of Ray's job transfers.  On December 15, 1989, at age 22, Dave graduated from the University of Massachusetts School of Management with a 3.45 grade point average.

After graduation, he got a job as a business analyst at Princess House, a direct sales company in Taunton, Massachusetts.  One of this primary responsibilities was to prepare reports, charts and spreadsheets on a computer.  This required lots of one handed typing, at which he'd already become proficient.  In 1991, with the encouragement of Steve Zrike, the president of Princess House, Dave began an evening Master's in Business Administration program at Bryant College in Smithfield, Rhode Island.  Three years later, he got his MBA.

To improve the use of his right hand, Dave chose to undergo further surgery at the New England Medical Center in Boston.  His right wrist was fused and the spasticity relaxed in his fingers.  After the operation, he went right back to work, even though his hand was still in a cast.  It remained that way for many weeks, after which he had to work hard to regain the use of it.  The only concession he made during this time was to use Ray's Acura Legend, which had automatic transmission.

All of Dave's experiences have helped form him into the thoughtful, hard working, wonderful person he is.  He was blessed with two older sisters, Bonnie and Sandy, who have loved and supported him in all his endeavors.  Ray and I knew that we had to have a strong family if all our children were to flourish.  We always stressed sticking together as a family, taking care of each other, and doing our best at whatever we did.

I once asked Dave how he felt about his disability.  He acknowledged that when he was really young he had been angry at the unfairness of his disabled hand, braces on his teeth and to top it off, eyeglasses.  But at about the time he was in middle school, he began to realize that he would be happier if he just got on with life and made the best of it.  Dave is an inspiration because he never let his disability keep him from his dreams.

In 1994, because Ray and I planned to move to Florida the next year, Dave quit his job at Princess House and moved to Indianapolis where Bonnie and Sandy lived.  He moved in with Sandy and her husband, Todd, and began to look for a job in data management or business analysis.  He found it very difficult.  Going through the interview process was even more nerve wracking for him than the average job seeker.  There were always the surreptitious glances at his hand.  Furthermore, he never knew quite what to do.  Should he use his withered right hand to shake hands?  Or should he try to orchestrate shaking with his left hand, with all the attendant confusion that always created?  Should he bring up his disability and explain the cause and how he had overcome it?  On several occasions, Dave was one of two finalists for a job, but each time the job went to the other candidate.  We became very worried about him.  How could he hold up under this constant rejection?

Return to TREVOR DEAN'S HOME PAGE