I’m very excited to share an amazing resource for families, written by an incredible father, Glen Dick.
I was 25, a graduate of Temple University with a degree in landscape architecture, and taking a rare break from work to spend July Fourth weekend with buddies when one of those buddies playfully pulled me into the water off of a dock. I hit my head on the bottom, broke my neck and was left paralyzed from the chest down.
I was so worried at this point – everything that was important – my physicality, my looks, my job, my money – was taken away. I was convinced that I would now never fulfill my dream of getting married and becoming a father.
But 10 years later, I found my soulmate and we were blessed with a daughter, Elaina. After she was born, we became a team. My wheelchair was her ticket to ride, and Elaina gradually became my hands: opening jars and doors, moving the pieces in a board game, making a sandwich.
She never saw me as “Dad in a wheelchair”, she just saw me as “Dad” and through her sense of imagination and wonder, we find new adventures every day. I wanted to write a book for her to capture these memories, but what resulted was a story about living with a disability and the strength and resiliency that result, but in its truest sense, it is a story about the love between a father and a daughter. Any young child can relate to Elaina’s travels to the moon and back with her Daddy, and all young children want to be cuddled in their father’s arms while exploring the world.
I hope that the book’s message of resilience will resonate for other parents in wheelchairs and will open dialogue for all families about disabilities and difference and how they don’t necessarily have to be limitations.
About the Author: Glen Dick was born and raised in Doylestown, PA. Glen Dick’s career as a landscape architect, his sense of adventure and zest for life were temporarily slowed, but not defeated, by a spinal cord injury in 1995. The birth of his daughter helped him see that his limitations were actually a blessing that have led to hours of creative imaginative play. He lives in Chalfont, PA with his wife and daughter, but their adventures take them all over the world.
Win a copy of We Can Go Anywhere: My Adventures on Daddy’s Chair
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Good Luck, winner will be chosen 1/21/17.
