Where Are the Cans? - Joni

I grew up in a small North Florida town, population under 100. Most of our socializing took place at church, in public school, or at the infrequent fires which broke out in the woods or someone’s wood frame house during the winter.

“Hi, Jim. How’s the kids and that new cow you traded for Henry’s sow and her eight piglets? How long’s it been since we last talked? Oh, yeah, the last fire down at the gas station.” (And they were next door neighbors.)

It’s hard to have secrets in a town where you can find out everyone business from the post-mistress who’d been on the job for the last 60 odd years?

Although most outsiders would have profiled my family as poor, in that small town I was the partaker of rich experiences living among a number of people with physical limitations. It was a common sight to see people with MS and other disabilities being lifted from automobiles to wheel chairs before and after church services.

But what captured my attention in those days was an I-Can person my own age. And her story continues today, defying the odds of longevity, productivity and happiness.

Born Joni Eareckson, October, 1949 in Baltimore, Maryland, she was the youngest of four daughters in an athletic, active family. Named after her father, John Eareckson had participated in the 1932 Olympic as an alternate for the U-S wrestling team and would be honored in 1996 as a Distinguished Member at the National Wrestling Hall of fame.

Joni loved outdoor activities; riding horses, hiking, tennis and most of all swimming. Misjudging the depth of the water, she dove into the Chesapeake Bay one hot July day in 1967. Tragedy struck. She instantly became a tetraplegic following a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae.    

Paralyzed from the shoulders down, Joni experienced all anger, depression, and religious doubts one would imagine. For such an active teenager, it must have seemed like hell on earth. Trapped in a body that no longer responded to the commands of her brain, she begged friends and family to help her out of misery.

During her two years of rehabilitation, Joni learned she could paint holding a brush between her teeth and began selling her artwork. With a little more effort, she began mastering writing, although now days she relies on voice recognition software.
Defying the odds, this I-Can person married a high school history teacher and coach. Ken Tada was a second generation born in the United States after his family relocated from Japan.
Joni Eareckson Tada reclaimed her faith during those first struggling years of rehabilitation. Her confidence in God has shown through her accomplishments as an author, radio host, and founder of Joni and Friends, an organization "accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community." To date, she has written over forty books, recorded several musical albums, starred in an autobiographical movie of her life, and is an international advocate for people with disabilities.

In addition to her already challenged life, Joni learned from medical professionals she had been diagnosed Stage III breast cancer in 2010. Her five-year treatment regimen would prove successful as she was declared cancer free in 2015. 

"Joni and Friends Radio," a five-minute radio program begun in 1982, can be heard each weekday on over 1,000 broadcast outlets in America and abroad. Most of her 48 books focus on the subjects of disability and Christianity. Several of them have been children's books, including Tell Me The Promises, which received the Evangelical Publishers’ Association’s Gold Medallion and Silver Medal in the 1997 C.S. Lewis Awards, and Tell Me The Truth, which received the EPCA Gold Medallion in 1998.

I’m confident the I-Can’ts battered Joni over the years. Having to rely on others for practically everything from personal hygiene to food preparation and transportation is a challenge to even the most agreeable person. 

When the I-Won’t pummels me, Joni is a contemporary I can compare my inconvenient troubles to.

Stay tuned for I-Can #2 - Carver and Racial Bigotry