What About the Boy?

A Father's Pledge to His Disabled Son

by Stephen Gallup

 
 

December 21 Interview on VoiceAmerica Variety Channel

We took time out from holiday preparations for one last radio interview, which you can hear by clicking this link. My portion begins at about the 15-minute mark, but why not listen to the fellow before me, too. He’s written a book as well. The following excerpt was my response when the host asked me to explain what is meant by the “pledge” to my son in the book’s subtitle:

“I spoke about an objective earlier. The objective that we worked toward, that we got so excited about, was to try our very best to help him achieve a full recovery. Now, we knew the odds were against us. But it felt like something worth shooting for. It certainly motivated us, as opposed to being, to living in despair, which is what some folks that we knew were doing. So, um, we did not achieve total wellness. But we did achieve some wonderful things for him. And I don’t want to minimize that. I think that his quality of life is substantially better as a result of it. And the pledge is that I’m still his advocate now. He’s 26 years old. And I always will be.”