Re: Nice story and video.This was posted

[Guest guest]

Words can not express my thanks for sharing this story. The tears

running down my face might convey some of my feelings. If there was

but one news story a day this should have been it! Over and over.

" I can only imagine " what this world would be if we all had this

faith, courage, commitment and love.

Peace & Love,

>

> Nice story and video.This was posted

> on my intimacy group and want to share with others

> groups that deal with disability...

>

> This should make you think how lucky in ways you have

> it,and make you not feel so bad about your own life..this

> is a true story and please check out the video.

>

>

> This posted by our campus pastor.

>

> " Strongest Dad in the World "

>

> Real Story:

>

> Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in

> marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a

> wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming

> and pedaled him

> 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

>

> Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back

> mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike.

> Makes taking

> your son bowling look a little lame, right?

>

> And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his

life.

>

> This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick

> was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him

brain-

> damaged

> and unable to control his limbs.

>

> " He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors

told

> him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. " Put him in

an

> institution.''

>

> But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes

> followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to

the

> engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was

> anything to help

> the boy communicate. " No way,'' Dick says he was told. " There's

> nothing

> going on in his brain.''

>

> " Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns

out

> a

> lot was going on in his brain.

>

> Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by

> touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able

to

> communicate. First words? " Go Bruins!'' And after a high

> school classmate

> was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run

> for

> him, Rick pecked out, " Dad, I want to do that.''

>

> Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described " porker'' who never ran

> more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles?

Still,

> he

> tried.

>

> " Then, it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. " I was sore for

two

> weeks.''

>

> That day changed Rick's life. " Dad,'' he typed, " when we were

running,

> it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed

> Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as

> often as he

> could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were

ready

> to try

> the 1979 Boston Marathon.

>

> " No way,'' Dick was told by a race official.

>

> The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a

> wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined

the

> massive field

> and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race

> officially: In

> 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying

time

> for

> Boston the following year.

>

> Then somebody said, " Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy

> who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six

> going

> to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

> Well,

> now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour

> Ironmans

> in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting

> passed

> by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

>

> Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? " No way,'' he

says.

> Dick does it purely for " the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick

> with a

> cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

>

> This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th

Boston

> Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their

> best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the

> world

> record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things,

happens

> to be held

> by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the

time.

>

> " No question about it,'' Rick types. " My dad is the Father of the

> Century.''

>

> And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he

had

> a

> mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his

> arteries was

> 95% clogged. " If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor

> told

> him, " you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

>

> So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

>

> Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in

> Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland,

> Mass., always

> find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and

> compete

> in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's

Day.

>

> That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really

> wants

> to give him is a gift he can never buy. " The thing I'd most like,''

> Rick

> types, " is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

>

> (Now, watch the video)....

>

>

>

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE

>