When I started out with the WHA everyone kept talking about what an inspiration I am to them and you know what I didn’t get it.  I am just me, the same me I was before I got hurt.  I love my family, friends. the outdoors, just like everyone else does is the way I see it.  So when confronted with being an inspiration it disturbed me;  as I am just living my life the best I can each and every day.  There is no quit in me and that is all I am going to say about anything I do that is special so when I met Ron Stewart who had followed me via the internet I was faced with this again. 

Ron Stewart was hurt in a construction accident and I had never met or even heard of Ron until I started writing on my blog www.hacksstand.com .  Ron proceeded to let me know that my courage in going on with my life had inspired him to go on with his life too.  My god, that hit me so strong and hard as I was getting it explained to me from another man, father, husband, hunter what it meant exactly to him.  You see my accident was immediate and permanent as I severed my spinal cord at T-9 so there was no thinking about it or drawn out pain of seeing it slowly fade away no matter what I did.  Ron’s injury is like that though.  He could still walk although very painful, and slowly it is leaving him as his spine and injury deteoriates.  He is now spending most of his life in a wheelchair each and everyday.

So after reading about me and seeing himself as I am in a chair, he felt that if I can do it then by the grace of god, he would do it to.  So Ron quit sitting around and feeling sorry for himself, thinking that he was being passed by and over by the real world and slowly fading out of real everyday life.  By following my written exploits and the video and articles posted on the internet about me, Ron Stewart was ready to face the rest of his life in a wheelchair.  After Ron explained what I meant to him then I think I grasped the understanding of what I did that inspired him.  You see I truly know I can do anything anyone else can do, I might have to find a different and even harder way but I know I can do it.  I try to not let the wheelchair or my injury affect my family or my life if I can help it and Ron was able to see that and to see that he could anything I can do, maybe even better. 

We exchanged several e-mails and talked on the phone and I feel a real connection with Ron now.  It was one of his last visits to the doctor that he sent me this prognosis.

   Went to the Doc’s this morning, got some disturbing news, the
osteomylitis has completely killed of the marrow in L4 and L5, and the
cavities are replaced with fatty tissue, which is evidence that L4 and L5
are officially dead bone, but hey , I still have all my teeth, so who’s
complaining, I already knew something had changed, I just didn’t know for
sure what.

I hated to hear that as I had held out hope that Ron would not be confined to a wheelchair.  We talked allot about our feelings and the bad days we have.  But the big thing I assured him was to try and be happy .  Find a way each day to do something with your family or for yourself to enjoy it to the fullest.  Not to be down and depressed as your family and friends feed on your emotions too and it sets the tone for their life with you.  That is all I am going to say about the hurt and pain that we share, as the important thing is what lays ahead for us both.

The last few e-mails have dealt with hunting, deer hunting, shed hunting, turkey hunting, the passion of being outdoors that still burns and can be lived to its fullest just as it was before.  I look forward to hearing from Ron Stewart and about how happy his family and him are and what they are doing.  He just found some shed antlers at his home in Pennsylvania and his seeing gobblers and hens in the woods behind his house.  I tell him how I hunt from a Kawasaki Mule and from an Eagle Sports Chair www.eaglesportschairs.com .  I also get up in a tree stand using a pulley and harness, not for the feint of heart or to be tried at home. 

This was one of Ron’s last e-mails and the closing which hits me hard when I read and think about it.

  I’m glad I got to know you Hack, the more I think about it we have
allot in common, more than the average people, and I feel very blessed to be
your friend, hope all is well for you and the family,

     Your friend forever,
                                                                            
                             Ron

This is Ron Stewart and his wife who he loves very much and she supports him and stands by his side through this life altering accident.  God Bless you both.

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