Dayshawn's Wheelchair

Sometimes you have an experience here that you just KNOW is the Holy Spirit. I have told most of my family about this story - but since this has finally come full circle, let me share this with you too.

When we were signing children up for CCD last year one man signed up his son, Dayshawn, age 10. We'd never seen any boy named Dayshawn at church so we asked about him and was told he'd just had surgery and was at home. So we called the family, introduced ourselves and set up a time to meet them. When we did, we found Loretta at home with a severely handicapped Dayshawn. Dayshawn suffers from Cerebral Palsey and in addition to being severely physically handicapped he cannot speak. His diet is primarily farina cereal and Ensure, the dietary supplement, which he drinks from a bottle.

Now back at St. Tim's in Norwood I served as Chaplain to "Faith and Light" a group of mentally challenged people that have been meeting at St. Tim's for over 20 years now. My experience with these loving people seemed to prepare me for Dayshawn. At that first meeting I was able to hold him in my lap for about an hour as we visited with Loretta and heard her story and Dayshawn's. Loretta is Anglican, her husband Catholic.

Leonard, or Porky as he is more well known, came to church and the Sisters who preceeded us here began to drop in and visit Loretta and Dayshawn. She said, "it was the Catholics that helped us Faddah, they came and visited". And now here we are, unknowingly continuing where the Sisters left off. Usually Dayshawn spends the day in a recliner, they have no wheelchair, there is no visiting nurse, there is no physical therapy, all we have here is a clinic. It was clear during our visit that Dayshawn is much loved. His parents provide all they can and he is an important part of their family.

Here is a pic of Dayshawn and his mother in their kitchen.

Weeks later, on a weekend we had a visiting priest, I was purifying the chalice after Mass at our church in Cargill Creek. As I wiped the inside of the chalice I happened to notice, on the bottom of the chalice, an engraving. It said 'Order of Alhambra - Caravan No. 82 - Montreal - In Memory of James Murphy Sept 21, 1952' and there was an emblem - a red tower.

Now, I never heard of Alhambra before - and Lord knows how a chalice like this found its way from Montrel to Cargill Creek Andros. Later that afternoon I went online and discovered that Alhambra is a fraternal order of Catholic men with a ministry of serving the needs of disabled children. (Isn't God amazing!)

So I send an email to the contact person, telling them of the chalice I'd found. I told them that if the Murphy family was still around, they might enjoy knowing this chalice is still in service and that it had found its way to this mission church in Cargill Creek, Andros. A few weeks go by and I get a reply from Roger Reid, an officer of Alhambra who was very interested in the chalice and referred me to the Alhabra 'scribe', Andre Beauchamp in Canada expressing great interest in the chalice and promising to research the chalice, etc. So I reply to him, this time mentioning that I had noticed they have a ministry to disabled children and describing Dayshawn. This led to a series of emails, over a period of months, until he suggested that Alhambra might be able to provide a wheelchair!

By this time I had told Loretta about Alhambra but she wasn't too excited about the wheelchair. They had had other wheelchairs and they never worked. Dayshawn has no upper body control and he would always slump forward in them. He needed a wheelchair that could recline, one that was adjustable, and might be able to grow with him over the years.

Well, my lovely wife is a visiting nurse. Now it was her turn to jump on the internet and search for chairs that would work - naturally she found one, but it was over $2,000 - then on another site one for half that, with a contact at a Nassau distributor. After several phone calls she came up with a solution for under $900.

So I send this information along to my friend in Canada and I get a reply that Alhambra is having a convention in Detroit and he'll bring Dayshawn's case up at the meeting. Needless to say, Porky and Loretta are thrilled that this has gotten this far and we were on pins and needles waiting to hear what would happen at the convention.

Well - the email arrived - the money was approved and a check was in the mail! I called Loretta immediately and later that day ran into Porky at the local market and told him. Weeks later the check arrived on Andros, we deposited the money, called the Nassau distributor, and sent them the formal order with the payment. Now it was just a matter of time.

One of the mail boats that comes to Andros is the 'Lady Katrina' and Loretta works as the shipping agent for the Katrina. We told the shipping company to use that boat to get the wheelchair to Andros and arrive it did!

Loretta took it home that day, Porky put it together and now Loretta doesn't have to carry him wherever they go. Dayshawn can be taken outside and sit in the gazebo his father built on the front of their house and watch his Dad play dominoes. Loretta can actually take Dayshawn for a walk. Moving from one room of the house to another no longer requires Loretta pick him up and carry him.

What strikes me about this story is how the Holy Spirit works.

What ever prompted me to turn the chalice upside down and look at the bottom?

What ever prompted Porky to register Dayshawn for CCD?

How did that chalice migrate to Cargill Creek?

Imagine this from a chalice from 1952! God set this up 57 years ago!

Imagine the 'coincidence' of Alhambra, of all the charities it might support, have a ministry to disabled children - and Andre Beauchamp taking the ball and running with it, presenting Dayshawn's situation to Alhambra in Detroit - and them approving the purchase.

God is indeed a loving Father, and we are His childen. We thank Alhambra, we thank Roger Reid and Andre Beauchamp - and most importantly - we thank the Holy Spirit who was totally involved in this, not only from the beginning of our meeting Dayshawn, but 57 years ago when the Murphy family first commissioned this chalice. Glory to God in the Highest - Amen!

Here are pics of Dayshawn in his new wheelchair - and another of his mother, father and I posing with Dayshawn.

Elephantitis

Hello again - well the latest news from here has to be the weather - it is HOT.
No breeze, no relief, just oppressive heat with high humidity. Every morning is the same, I leave the air conditioned bedroom and the trees are still, the house is already hot, I turn on the fans, start a pot of coffee, light my candle for morning prayer, then sit in front of the fan as I pray Morning Prayer. Every day is in the mid to high 90's with over 80% humidity - weather stations say the heat index (the 'feels like' temp) is always over 100.

While this is life on Andros - live goes on. If you remember, prior to our trip to the States we had a boy drown here. After we returned we stopped by to see the family and met the Grandfather. Everyone else in the house had gone to the creek to fish for supper so Ginni and I sat with him and talked for over an hour. It was a great conversation with him telling us much of the history of the Catholic church in the southern end of our part of Andros.

What was striking about this man were his legs. His wore shorts, no shoes, and right leg was incredibly swollen. All I could think of was the disease Elephantitis that you read about in Africa. The leg and foot were triple their normal size and the skin was tough and caloused. Ginni later told me it is 'peripheral vascular disease'. Meaning his circulation is so poor that the fluid in his legs stays there and the leg swells. Somehow to say it is swollen just doesn't describe it sufficiently as I type the words.

Anyway, we talked about is grandson's drowning, and the funeral we missed. We had heard it was a full church and very emotional. He said he didn't go because of his foot. In fact, he stopped going to Church years ago because he couldn't wear shoes anymore, and hasn't worn shoes for over 5 years.

When I asked why we hadn't seen his family in church he explained that when the permanent resident Sisters left, and the church was served by priests/deacons that just came for weekend visits they felt abandoned. They still consider themselves Catholic, but none of the grandchildren are baptized, his children haven't been to church for years and, after several years away, they are pretty much 'un-churched'.

Our conversation covered a wide range of topics and he was very well spoken. He told stories of Fr. Gabriel Roerig OSB, a Benedictine who spent over 30 years evangelizing Andros. He built the first church here, he served up and down the Andros coast before their were roads, using a boat when he could, and walking when he couldn't. The more I hear of this priest the more I wonder why he isn't up for canonization.

After a great conversation, and an assurance he'd try to get the grandchildren back to church on Sunday, Ginni asked if any of the Doctors he had seen had tried to get him stockings or support hose that might give some relief. They had not. Ginni's visiting nurse experience kicked in and she promised to try to see what she might find on the web. They have wrap-around boots for this disease that can be very comfortable, provide relief, and double as shoes for many people.

So we said our good-byes, promised we would bring him communion on Sunday, and left. Later that day Ginni had a print out of two different types of wrap around shoes - one was more of a slipper, the other not only wrapped around the foot, but the ankle and calf too. With velco straps the width was adjustable and it looked perfect.

On Sunday there was an entire row of new children we'd never seen before - his grandchildren. There were no adults, we assume they either walked or got dropped off, but he was true to his promise and they all were there, dressed in pretty party dresses. I talked to them after church and told them we'd be coming by with communion and some information for their grandfather.

After our van made the rounds of dropping off locals with no cars to their homes, we left and made our first stop to see him again. All the kids met us in the driveway - now back in shorts and t-shirts and shoeless once again. They led us to the back yard and we sat on buckets turned upside down under the same mango tree I had met with them a few weeks ago to talk about the upcoming funeral of the boy who had drowned.

Ginni showed him the pictures and the descriptions of the wrap around boot and he said no Doctor had ever shown him anything like this. After we read some of the information to him (all the time surrounded by all the children looking to see what 'Faddah' had brought grampie) he thought that it might actually work and we promised to see how we could order it on the internet.

Then I began the prayers for the communion service - and he still remembered the prayers. "I confess to Almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters that I have sinned ..." The children were wide-eyed as he and his wife together joined me and Ginni as we prayed through this little prayer service. I read the Ephesians reading from this Sunday liturgy and told him a recap of the homily. We prayed the Lord's Prayer and I gave him and his wife communion. Afterwards I explained to some of the children that, after they come to religion classes and they learn about the Eucharist, they can recieve their First Communion and recieve every Sunday. (At Church the young children recieve a blessing at communion, and they'd just had that experience at Church earlier).

We returned to the van (which, by the way, had people sitting and waiting for us for their ride home), and we were off. On the way home we dropped these folks off and then made another 3 communion calls. We have a 94 year-old blind woman who I've written about before, another 90+ year-old woman who has fallen and broken her arm, and a cancer patient who just returned from Nassau after chemo. A busy Sunday in 95 degree heat.

Several people back in the States have been very generous to us and it is that genosity that will be put to work now to buy this man's support-boot. If it works as well as we hope, he may actually be able to return to church with his grandchildren. Time will tell.

Enough for now, pray for us as we do for you.