I’ve been blessed to have a number of life altering or fork in the road moments and choices. The one that stands out in my mind today is when I was 7 years old, in the spring of 1960, and was in the hospital with an acute kidney infection. They thought I was going to die. People in my family, especially my mother, prayed for me almost constantly, as did many members of Ward Chapel A.M.E. church. Three other children in the same ward did die while I was there. One of them I thought of as a friend. I was in hospital beds and wheel chairs for so long that when I was released from Kansas University Medical Center I could no longer walk. Upon release I rolled through the hospital’s front doors. It took several painful weeks to learn to walk again.
It was the summer of the Rome Olympics and a Black female runner by the name of Wilma Rudolph was competing. She had been a victim of polio and as a child had worn braces. Doctors told her parents that she would always be cripple. The doctors were wrong. I was inspired as I watched her, on TV; win 3 gold medals for herself, Colored people and the United States. That night, I began praying and exercising my legs by running around my block virtually everyday. This was before joggings became fashionable. The neighbors wondered where I was running to or what I was running from. The street I lived on had long blocks and I ran around it time and time again, sometimes as many as fifty times. Occasional I ran with friends, but most of the time I ran alone...
Come back next Friday to hear about Rep. Lloyd Daniel
Rep. Lloyd Daniel is a writer, advocate, college professor and former member of Missouri’s House of Representatives. He lives in Kansas City. His website address is www.lloyddaniel.info
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