Page 24 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2017 - Online Magazine
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Senior Senior
A Giant in a Wheelchair
by Mattison Cox
If I had a ticket pool and did everything in their power
in my hand, I to make sure he survived that awful day.
would go back in On June 6, 1963 Chuck Preston became
time to that eerie a quadriplegic. Many of his dreams
rainy day of June ended that afternoon, but exemplary
6, 1963. As the perseverance was born. And though that
result of a heavy tragic event changed his life forever, it
overnight rain, also became the springboard for many
a maintenance other lives to be changed for the better.
crew had had
to drain the If I were to go back to that exact moment,
neighborhood I would, of course, want to prevent my
pool in the grandfather from making that terrible
small town of dive. On the other hand, if I were there
Laverne, Oklahoma. As fate would have in that moment, I would have witnessed
it, 15-year-old Chuck Preston and his what it means to be a real friend. I would
best friends decided to go for a swim. soak in the importance of that critical
It seemed like the perfect day, moment when those boys became men. I
because they were the only ones would marvel at the heroism that would
there. But that day Chuck’s life seal their friendships for life! I would
and future changed forever. He witness a tragic accident, but I would
“successfully” nailed his double also see the potentially positive impact it
flip into the deep end of the would have on people.
draining pool. That dive came
with a devastating cost, however. I would’ve loved to have knelt down
His neck and both arms were beside my grandpa and gently whispered
broken. in his ear, “I’m your granddaughter,
and I want you to know that you will
Chuck Preston was my be okay. Your life will be more beautiful
grandfather. From that moment than any other life I’ve ever known.
on, he was never able to walk Your life will touch more lives than you
again. As he was sinking to the bottom could ever fathom. You will go on to
of the pool, his friends watched in horror. finish college at your beloved OU. You
Little did he know, those teenagers will earn a Masters degree, and become
would become more than just his best a life-changing social worker. You will
childhood buddies. They became the marry the love of your life. You will have
heroic men who saved his precious life. children and grandchildren. You will be a
Those young men pulled him out of the living, breathing example of courageous
24 Lubbock Senior Link
