Christopher Reeve Dead at 52

Christopher Reeve,
originally uploaded by Professor Kim.

I never met Christopher Reeve, although my friend, the late Don Evans was one of his teachers. I did meet his wife Dana this summer, when she spoke at a local John Kerry fundraiser that I covered for this blog. Her remarks were direct and heart felt. "I'm sick and tired of what George Bush has been doing under the radar," she said, detailing ways in which the Bush Administration's actions damaged the economy, health care, the environment and the nation's international standing.

The point is that I have no particular professional or personal connection to the Reeves, but the news of Christopher Reeves' death this morning has affected me in a way that most celebrities' deaths haven't. I suspect that I believed along with him that he was going to walk again, despite the devastating spinal injury that made him a quadriplegic during the last decade.

It was almost 10 years ago that was given back the ability to walk, thanks to two hip replacement surgeries to repair damage done by ankylosing spondylitis, a part of my life the I usually talk about on my other blog. Although I was never as incapacitated as Reeve, and I spent only two years in a wheelchair, I can still relate to the despair Reeve confessed to feeling when the extent of his injuries became clear to him:

"You look out the window, and you can't believe where you are," he told Barbara Walters several months after the accident. "And the thought that keeps going through your mind is, 'This can't be my life. There's been a mistake.'"

But it was to be his life, and like the rest of us with disabilities, you realize that it is up to you to fight for whatever life is available to you. You realize too, that it is a daily choice, and sometimes a daily hurdle to jump. With the support of his wife and family, Christopher Reeve fought valiantly, and I realized this morning that I had come to identify with his struggle as a result of my own.

No doubt, Reeve's family will urge those who want to pay tribute to Reeve's memory to donate to the Christopher Reeve Foundation to support further research on paralysis. I'm sure, as well, that they would urge everyone to vote in November as well. Millions of us with disabilities, as well as our families, would no doubt agree.