It began with a couple of steps. After a while, John Gilpatrick dared to walk anywhere from 60 to 100 feet, taking more and more steps and, in the process, leaving his wheelchair further and further behind.
And that has always been the objective. Work with the doctors. Do the therapy. Bear the pain. Pray. And never, ever, not for one second, stop believing that a day will arrive when the wheelchair gathers dust.
Which brings us to yesterday, when Gilpatrick walked into a room at Suffolk University Law School and said hello to a gathering of reporters, photographers and television shooters.
But you know what? This was one press conference in which the reporters were not necessary. This time, the picture takers were all that were needed, because, this time, no words could better capture the moment than a simple picture of John Gilpatrick . . . walking.
He didn't really need to answer all the questions. He didn't need to share his emotions, or tell us 'how he feels,' or predict what's going to happen 'in the future.'
He's walking.
And the wheelchair . . . oh, there it is. Over there. In the background.
Anyone got a dust rag?
Wow.
True, the onetime Suffolk University hockey player is nowhere near where he wants to be. He hopes one day that his wheelchair will be a museum piece in his memory, but he also knows that, yes, for now, it must remain part of his life. As he put it yesterday, 'With spinal cord injuries, you don't know what you're going to get back and what you're not going to get back.'
What we do know is that John Gilpatrick has already beat the odds. It was in 1996 that he suffered a serious spinal cord injury while playing hockey for Suffolk, and that's when people said he'd never walk again. Brian Hovan, now the Suffolk hockey coach but back then a teammate of Gilpatrick's who rode in the ambulance with him to the hospital, remembers: 'I could see the fear in his eyes, and I knew he could see the fear in my eyes. Everyone knew something bad had happened.'
The beauty of this story is that, since that night, things have just kept getting better and better. A lot of people - friends, teammates, alums of Suffolk, even folks who had never met the guy - donated money to have Gilpatrick's home retro-fitted for wheelchair accessibility. He returned to school. He earned his degree. Last year, he signed on as an assistant coach of the Suffolk hockey team, a job that returned him to the very building - Boston University's Walter Brown Arena - where the injury occurred.
So, too, did his health improve. It didn't hurt that he never stopped being an athlete. He viewed his comeback as the greatest game he ever played, and, not long ago, it culminated with his decision to stand up and take some steps.
'It might be a few months before I wake up and say, woah, look what's happened,' he said. 'Right now, it's hard to put it into words. . . . I know that someone from up above was looking down on me and pushing me to keep going on.'
Gilpatrick also had some help from down here, and that's a big part of this story. At yesterday's press conference, old friends and old teammates stood among the media types, and many had tears in their eyes. Current members of the Suffolk hockey program were in the back of the room, mesmerized by the moment. Gilpatrick's mother, Elaine Jones, and his stepfather, Allan Jones, were as proud as any parents could possibly be.
And then there were the Suffolk people, and let's stop right here to make this very important point: Gilpatrick's school never gave up on him. The fund-raisers and the letters were nice, but the Suffolk folks made Gilpatrick aware, day after day after day, that he'd always be welcomed back. For 4 1/2 years, there have been monthly mailings: The Suffolk people made sure nobody forgot John Gilpatrick.
We say 'Suffolk people,' but, mainly, we're talking about Jim Nelson, the school's athletic director. This is a guy who runs a tiny athletic department on a shoestring budget, and over the last 4 1/2 years he has made John Gilpatrick's best interests as much a part of his job as scheduling games and ordering equipment.
'He's family,' Gilpatrick said. 'He's been like a father to me. God, how I love that guy.
'And when I decided I wanted to go back to school, they took me back, no questions asked. When I wanted to be a part of the hockey program, they made me an assistant coach. I got my degree. Now I'm going to Suffolk Law School.'
Suffolk Law School?
Attorney John Gilpatrick?
You'd want this guy in your corner. One thing you can count on, he'd never give up on you.
After all, he never gave up on himself.
