The Miracle of a Dad's Great Love
The story caught my attention because of a Facebook posting some one gave me. The posting was about Rick Hoyt and his dad Dick.As I researched their story more I found some amazing stuff. Wikipedia summarized it well with the following…
Team Hoyt is a father (Dick Hoyt) and son (Rick Hoyt, b. 1962) in Massachusetts who compete together in marathons, triathlons, and other athletic endeavors. Rick was disabled at birth by a loss of oxygen to his brain because his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, and he also suffers from cerebral palsy. Dick carries him in a special seat up front as they bike, pulls him in a special boat as they swim, and pushes him in a special wheelchair as they run.
Thanks to his parents, who ignored the advice of doctors that he would live life in a persistent vegetative state, and Tufts University engineers, who recognized that his sense of humor indicated intelligence, at the age of 12, Rick was able to learn how to use a special computer to communicate, using movements from his head. The first words he typed were, "Go Bruins!", and the family learned he was a sports fan. They entered their first race in 1977, a 5 mile benefit run for an injured lacrosse player who was a schoolmate of Rick's.
Dick is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard. Rick earned a college degree from Boston University in special education, and now works at Boston College. They continue to compete in races, and are also motivational speakers.
As of December 31, 2006, Team Hoyt had participated in a total of 942 events, including 216 Triathlons (6 of which were Ironman competitions), 20 Duathlons, and 65 Marathons, including 25 consecutive Boston Marathons. They also biked and ran across the USA in 1992 — a 3,735 mile journey that took them 45 days.
When asked what one thing Rick wished he could give his father, his reply was "The thing I'd most like is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once."
Ric Hoyt and I are not that much different. He was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. My mom has shared the story often about the horrible moments when the mid-wife in the small nursing home told dad and mom that the cord was wrapped around my neck twice…my colour was not good as I came out…and my dad’s hand shook as he held the flash light for my delivery. The nursing home was about 60 miles south of Regina, in 1944, and they had no car. The nursing home and the mid-wife were the only thing that even resembled anything remotely medical. There was no nursery, no incubators, no special handling, no special nothing… the baby lived or died.
So when I get a little agitated with the kind of people that have other agendas – you may understand better.
As I watched the video on YouTube I saw the two siblings(or friends) of Rick playing road hockey with him. Rick is younger and sitting in the wheel chair watching the action. On the front of the chair was a hockey stick fastened by some means. Rick’s brother(I assume) is pushing the chair and moving it into place to get the ball. Another boy is trying to get it from them.
In the Team Hoyt Web Site I found these moving words…
Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.
It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.
The part that is so moving… is not only Rick – but Dick – the dad. He is 65 now and nothing stops him from competing with his son. They are together on everything. Undoubting spirits – they believe in each other. A will to do something so impossible… that they just do it is amazing.
I don’t have to point out that most people with all their faculties could not and would not even consider one mile’s run…let alone all that goes into a triathlon.
I doubt that Dick ever considered that Rick is a burden. “Mercy Killing” would not be in his thoughts – EVER! But rather he has accepted the burden and weight that Rick represents as part of his life… and that is LOVE…unbelievable LOVE.
Listening to some describe their rights lately, in marriage, in work places, in community actions; I am astounded at how little they know about the depth of commitment that is needed to really cherish LOVE or to have the right to a LOVE…of any sort.
Much of what I have seen is a “FLAKEY TV LOVE” stuff trying to come out in everyday living. It is immersed in a bath of “stinking selfishness”, rolled in stupidity and withering in self pity. Pathetic is the final result and destruction for ever child involved.
When questioned about the triathlon, Dick Hoyt said the following…
After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon — and for this Dick had to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."
With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985.
Can you imagine the ‘heart stuff’ that is involved in having to learn how to swim – not just to stay alive in the water – but to pull a rubber boat behind you, carrying your disabled son across the water, in a triathlon?
I am stirred today with what I have read about the Hoyt Team. I hope you are too. Read and watch the Links below and then go have a “Happy Hoyt Day”.
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
Resources:
Team Hoyt
http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Hoyt
CNNRic Hoyt and I are not that much different. He was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. My mom has shared the story often about the horrible moments when the mid-wife in the small nursing home told dad and mom that the cord was wrapped around my neck twice…my colour was not good as I came out…and my dad’s hand shook as he held the flash light for my delivery. The nursing home was about 60 miles south of Regina, in 1944, and they had no car. The nursing home and the mid-wife were the only thing that even resembled anything remotely medical. There was no nursery, no incubators, no special handling, no special nothing… the baby lived or died.
So when I get a little agitated with the kind of people that have other agendas – you may understand better.
As I watched the video on YouTube I saw the two siblings(or friends) of Rick playing road hockey with him. Rick is younger and sitting in the wheel chair watching the action. On the front of the chair was a hockey stick fastened by some means. Rick’s brother(I assume) is pushing the chair and moving it into place to get the ball. Another boy is trying to get it from them.In the Team Hoyt Web Site I found these moving words…
Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.
It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.
The part that is so moving… is not only Rick – but Dick – the dad. He is 65 now and nothing stops him from competing with his son. They are together on everything. Undoubting spirits – they believe in each other. A will to do something so impossible… that they just do it is amazing.
I don’t have to point out that most people with all their faculties could not and would not even consider one mile’s run…let alone all that goes into a triathlon.
I doubt that Dick ever considered that Rick is a burden. “Mercy Killing” would not be in his thoughts – EVER! But rather he has accepted the burden and weight that Rick represents as part of his life… and that is LOVE…unbelievable LOVE.Listening to some describe their rights lately, in marriage, in work places, in community actions; I am astounded at how little they know about the depth of commitment that is needed to really cherish LOVE or to have the right to a LOVE…of any sort.
Much of what I have seen is a “FLAKEY TV LOVE” stuff trying to come out in everyday living. It is immersed in a bath of “stinking selfishness”, rolled in stupidity and withering in self pity. Pathetic is the final result and destruction for ever child involved.When questioned about the triathlon, Dick Hoyt said the following…
After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon — and for this Dick had to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."
With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985.
Can you imagine the ‘heart stuff’ that is involved in having to learn how to swim – not just to stay alive in the water – but to pull a rubber boat behind you, carrying your disabled son across the water, in a triathlon?
I am stirred today with what I have read about the Hoyt Team. I hope you are too. Read and watch the Links below and then go have a “Happy Hoyt Day”.
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
Resources:
Team Hoyt
http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Hoyt
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Monday, March 03, 2008
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