This time of year, has always been special to me. It’s nearing Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Memories just seem to flood my mind. Most of those memories are of family time and visiting grandparents. There are also memories I have that are special to me. One of those memories that come back year after year happened on December 6th 1980.
On December 6th 1980 we were having a “gathering.” A gathering was the name Easter Seals gave their monthly outing of high school and above of students for a special night out. Typically, the gatherings were social events out in the community where students got to experience something “normal” students may experience. We would meet at the Easter Seals office and board a bus and off we would go.
I remember the director calling me and telling me that we would be going to a movie theater for a showing of the movie “Joni.” I remember her saying that the movie had a religious flavor to it and if I decided not to attend, she would understand. I remember telling my mother that we were going to the movies and the movie was called Joni. It was at that point that my mother went to the bookcase and pulled down a copy of Joni and handed it to me. She told me that both her and my father had read the book. As I thumbed through the pages I came to a section of photographs of Joni and realized that Joni had suffered an accident and was in a wheelchair.
It didn’t matter to me at the time that the movie would have a religious flavor. I simply loved going to the movies. It is something we often did as young children with my father on a Friday night. Dad would review the movies in the paper and tell us boys get on your pajamas and mom would pop a paper grocery bag full of popcorn and off we would go. Years later, dad would tell me that we would fall asleep during the movie and he would sit there watching the movie himself. So, going to the movies was ingrained in us and it didn’t really matter what the movie was. So, when the director said we’re going to the movies I was all in.
I remember talking to my friend Stanley that afternoon telling him we cannot lollygag around we must get home early enough to have our parents drop us off at Easter Seals. As it turned out, my class ran long and I missed the city bus home. I remember running home and telling my dad, “we are going to miss the bus.” In typical dad fashion my dad said don’t worry, if we missed the bus, I will drive you to the movie theater. I believe I was the last one on the bus that night but, I had made it.
Now, in typical young adult style, we were sitting next to each other chatting before the movie catching up on the latest news. As the movie started my friends around me were carrying on and clearly more interested in other things other than the movie. I remember clearly and suddenly taking a real interest in the story especially of her time in the hospital and her recovery. I began to identify with her experience. It was almost as if I were the only one in the theater. That was when I began to notice her acceptance and transformation from an angry young woman who had a bad diving accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down to a woman who had made peace with it and even found joy and a purpose in life.
I wondered briefly what had made such a change in her life. My personal experience being a person with a disability was rocky and painful during my youth and while I sought to hide that pain and those rocky moments, they still plagued me and I wondered why I didn’t have the peace I saw portrayed on the screen. I remember one scene where she was sitting outside reading a book. I wondered if the book she was reading was how she discovered and accepted her peace.
I remember coming home and deciding that I would cut class and go to see the movie again without the distractions of my friends. As I sat in a nearly empty movie theater, I watched the movie again with greater intensity seeking to find the one thing that made a difference. Much of the same emotions came up with one big difference. I discovered the book she was reading was the Bible. As I left the theater, I realized that whatever the message was in the Bible had transformed her and gave her the peace she needed.
Now, my experience with “Christians” had never been good and the Bible was something that sat on the bookshelf even though my parents gave us Bibles and encouraged us to listen to the messages at mass and attend religious classes. On the night of December 13th, I was sitting in my room flipping through the channels on the TV when I came across Joni speaking at a Billy Graham Crusade. The first realization I had was that the person portraying Joni was Joni herself and not an actor playing a part. The second realization was that what was shown on the screen was raw and real and you cannot fake that. As I sat glued to the TV, what I remember was Billy Graham saying now is the time. For a week I had rustled with the question of what do I do with that.
I had figured, okay let’s try. As I pulled out a small pink sheet someone had handed me on that December 6th night at the movies. I saw that there was a small prayer and a few boxes to check. I prayed that small prayer and wrote the date December 13, 1980 and looked at the clock by the bed which read 11:27 p.m. I remember thinking we will take this one day at a time.
When the new semester started at college, I remember walking down the breezeway headed to the cafeteria when I came across a table of booklets and a young man had asked me if I was interested in religious things. Kind of an odd question, but I answered, “kind of, I just saw the movie Joni over Christmas break.” As I shared my experience with him and a few questions I had, he asked if I would like to have coffee and sit and talk about it. For the first time, I had someone who could answer those still unanswered questions. He had explained the prayer and encouraged me to explore this book called the Bible. Over the course of that semester he and I drank a lot of coffee and soda because I didn’t drink coffee and talked about life.
Little did I know at the time but that chance meeting at the book table and our many hours talking would grow into a lifelong friendship and he would help me through many difficult moments in my journey.
It is difficult sitting here tonight writing this blog as I imagine that those events happened 40 years ago. It’s equally hard to imagine that I would have ever been able to meet the person who made such an impact on my life and to have the opportunity to hand her the pink card I had filled out and to thank her personally. Yet that was but one thing that has happened over the course of 40 years. There would not be enough room to write all that has transpired.
As I celebrate my 40th year, I continue on this journey one day at a time. The story continues….
If you would like to learn more about Joni and her work around the world please visit “sites to visit” by clicking on the Joni and Friends link.
Thoughts? E-mail: francisearly@francisearly.com
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