I sure could use a prayer or two

Mark, my best friend got married after he returned from Vietnam. He lost the use of both legs / paralyzed from the waist down from a mortar attack. At his wedding, he asked his new wife to join him out on the floor, asked her to sit in his lap, and wheeled her around the floor to their favorite song. There was not a dry eye in the room, and most of the room was filled with some bad-A$$ Marines. If your lady agreed to marry you, she will not care if you turn hand springs or must stay in your chair - - enjoy the day and your lady.

Congratulations!
 
Mark, my best friend got married after he returned from Vietnam. He lost the use of both legs / paralyzed from the waist down from a mortar attack. At his wedding, he asked his new wife to join him out on the floor, asked her to sit in his lap, and wheeled her around the floor to their favorite song. There was not a dry eye in the room, and most of the room was filled with some bad-A$$ Marines. If your lady agreed to marry you, she will not care if you turn hand springs or must stay in your chair - - enjoy the day and your lady.

Congratulations!

Actually, she doesn't care if I am in my wheelchair or on crutches, or crawling. She just wants me there no matter what. But I know how important this day is to her. It is her first time being married in a church with a "real" wedding and it is important to me to make this day perfect for her, and me standing and walking, even for just those few instances would make her so happy. She says it doesn't matter, but I know what she wishes and I want all her dreams to come true and make the day perfect. I have a year to work hard and try to gain enough balance. My muscles are strong , but if the nerves don't work, the muscles have no control. I believe I will get to have enough control to walk the isle out and give her that dance. At least I am going to try my best. I wanted to do our own vows , but she has a learning disability and doesn't want to. As a surprise, I have written my vows to her and before the minister starts the ceremony, he will first say that I have something to say, and then I will say my vows and then he will start the ceremony. This is going to be a surprise for her. I wrote the vows a month ago and I still cry when I read them so I know she will like it. ( I keep reading them to try to get through them without crying myself to be prepared). Also , if I can manage to walk with her and do the first dance, I will save it as a surprise for her as well as everyone else. ( The best man is in on helping make this work and we are the only ones who know ). It is most important to me, that this day be everything she dreams it should be. So the next 12 months are focused on the wedding. I still have to be concerned about the tremors diagnosis, but I have faith that with God's help, all will work out just fine. She asked me when out to dinner today if I was ever going to work in my shop again. I told her I don't know , but hope to. She knows how important that shop is to me.
 
Good for you Mark! Keep the faith strong and continue to strive toward your goal, we are all praying and pulling for you to succeed.
 
Mark you are an inspiration to us all, I hope the struggle is less each day and that you are soon back with your beloved machines and tools. I have admired your exquisite work from afar, and wish that I could do the same. I frequently hesitate to start because I doubt that the result will be good enough.
 
Mark you are an inspiration to us all, I hope the struggle is less each day and that you are soon back with your beloved machines and tools. I have admired your exquisite work from afar, and wish that I could do the same. I frequently hesitate to start because I doubt that the result will be good enough.

Thank you,

I am improving gradually all the time. I actually take a few steps sometimes, in the house, but I must be careful as I am very unsteady and can fall easily. I can not afford any more falls. damn doctors think I belong in a home as it is and my only problem is , I can't walk (without falling). It will be a long time before I work in the shop I am afraid. We'll see what the summer brings. I am adapting well to being "challenged", I think. My service dog is a big help for comfort.

I do try to inspire others. I have had a lot of people say "I wish I was as good as you" or "I'm not good enough yet to do that". You can probably do just as good a machine work as I do, and so can almost everyone else, but you must have the attitude, "I can do that". I never ran into anything I couldn't do. that mentality has served me well my whole life. I was always into electronics as a child. I was repairing televisions at 11 years old. the tube caddy was almost as big as me ( no solid state devices back then.) I moved into rewinding electric motors and industrial controls by teens and ham radio. After high school I got a degree in industrial electronics. Then I discovered machining. I shoveled chips and then started repairing the machines. This was before CNC, it was called NC and used paper tapes for programs. the machines broke down and the boss said , "can you fix these?" I said sure ( I'd never seen one in my life.) I fixed the machines and every other machine in the shop. I taught myself to run all of the machines while repairing them. One day the boss asked me if I was a machinist and I said "no". Then the shop master machinist came in and asked for a tap. Boss said what kind? master machinist said " not one pointy on the end, a flat one". He got his tap, left, and I turned to the boss and said, " Hell yes, I'm a machinist! The rest was history. In ten years I was a master machinist and also became a tool and die maker by the time I moved on to my next job. In that time I also got a degree in mechanical engineering and hydraulics for the machine tool industry. There wasn't a machine tool I couldn't run by then and at forty I got offered my dream job as an engineer for a major U.S. CNC machine tool manufacturer. I traveled the U.S. , Canada, and Mexico solving problems on new machines and servicing the very old machines that weren't supported anymore. I learned CNC programming. I was making $65,000 dollars a year in 1990, with a free company car, flying 150,00 miles a year , living in fancy hotels and loving life. Then in 1997 the years of heavy work as a young man and lifting more than I should took its toll. I was having a hard time keeping the pace. I got arthritis, a bad back, and could hardly make it through a day. By 2000 I was disabled and on company disability. That ran out and social Security turned me down. I went broke and bankrupt. Lost everything but my house. my doctor made sure when I appealed they couldn't turn me down and I got my Social Security 3 months later. It was a big adjustment going from Almost $70,000 a year and a company car to living on $20,000 a year. My health got worse and worse over the years. I built my home shop and continued machining. I have machined through two heart attacks, two strokes, open heart surgery for an arterial dissection, I still have an ascending aortic aneurysm threatening to kill me, Spinal stenosis so bad my nerves are all shot from the waist down and severe neuropathy that has stopped me from walking at the present. Until a few months ago , I was still machining and hope to again. the only reason I ain't making chips now is there isn't enough room to get the wheelchair in the shop. WHEN I get out of this chair, I will machine again. I guess my point is........ when someone says, "I can't do that" or "I am not that good" , They defeat themselves before they even try. It is a hell of a lot better (and more fun) to TRY and if it isn't as good as expected , TRY again till it is good enough. Hell I failed a lot of times in life. I just hid it and kept trying till figured it out. EVERYTHING is common sense. Don't look at the whole picture. Just look at the small part you are concerned with at the moment then move on to the next. That makes everything simpler and doable. One time I tore apart a huge machine to repair I never saw before. I had parts and wires and circuit boards scattered everywhere. The owner came over and asked if I was sure i could fix it. I said "sure" ( then said to myself, "I hope". )Took a few days but I got it!
i'm just saying ..... Take a chance and try..... you may surprise yourself. This is is aimed at ANYONE that says " I'm not that good yet" You don't know that.
 
That's the spirit, Mark!

My dad told us he applied for a badly needed job with the road department of the city he lived in way back in the great depression. The boss asked him if he could run a hydrauger. Dad said "Sure I can! What does it look like?" The boss laughed out loud, told dad he liked his spirit, and he was running the hydrauger by the end of the day.
 
I know you we are very much alike , we lost everything in 1980 . The same in point, but I feel if you try you can do. Even now I'm sure you'll find away to make your body let you do machining. From a wheelchair or standing walker ,with seat,,, . Modifications we make for us may help others , I've made many things for other disabled to do things they like . Gloves with a tube to hold leather carving tools and stamps. All kinds of adjustments can be made to let you in your shop . It may mean casters on machines to push away in or in place to use. But don't give up yet . I had to give my daughter away on her wedding day hunched up in a wheelchair and pushed by my wife. It's tuff I know , you still inspire me to keep up the fight. My latest nerve blocks L1- L4 are revealing more pain in other spots in my spine but there nowhere near as painful. It's been one week today and it's so much better . I just need to get past the fear now from the years of torture I endured. I'm very glad your marrying a women who loves you so very much , nothing better than a loving woman. Your pup looks ALOT like my oldest daughter's mutt. Full of vim and vigor and protective of her. Fight fight fight it's our lot. I've never earned a decent living , I we fight just to survive and it's only getting harder , I'm praying you get the strength in your legs and hips to get around easier. Dear Lord in heaven grant our needs and give us our desires I ask in Jesus name AMEN and AMEN
 
I know you we are very much alike , we lost everything in 1980 . The same in point, but I feel if you try you can do. Even now I'm sure you'll find away to make your body let you do machining. From a wheelchair or standing walker ,with seat,,, . Modifications we make for us may help others , I've made many things for other disabled to do things they like . Gloves with a tube to hold leather carving tools and stamps. All kinds of adjustments can be made to let you in your shop . It may mean casters on machines to push away in or in place to use. But don't give up yet . I had to give my daughter away on her wedding day hunched up in a wheelchair and pushed by my wife. It's tuff I know , you still inspire me to keep up the fight. My latest nerve blocks L1- L4 are revealing more pain in other spots in my spine but there nowhere near as painful. It's been one week today and it's so much better . I just need to get past the fear now from the years of torture I endured. I'm very glad your marrying a women who loves you so very much , nothing better than a loving woman. Your pup looks ALOT like my oldest daughter's mutt. Full of vim and vigor and protective of her. Fight fight fight it's our lot. I've never earned a decent living , I we fight just to survive and it's only getting harder , I'm praying you get the strength in your legs and hips to get around easier. Dear Lord in heaven grant our needs and give us our desires I ask in Jesus name AMEN and AMEN
 
Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and relieve thy sick servants, and give thy power of healing to those who minister to their needs, that those for whom our prayers are offered may be strengthened in their weakness and have confidence in thy loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
 
Someone in this thread commented that they refused to stop even knowing that it would cost them. I can certainly relate.
I believe that while you live and breath, you have to keep on keeping on.
It's obvious that Mark believes that too.
I do everything around our house, even if makes me hurt bad afterwards or I can't move.
Moved all my machines down the basement myself. I know, I was nuts to do it.
I worked on a basement window in the heat last summer, then did some other things in the garden, passed out from heat exhaustion.
Came to on my front lawn. LOL
Build my outside shed myself, put in electric lines underground. This winter, I finished my clock shop.
My left arm permanently aches, I did some damage, but every weekend, I am back. You just can't quit.
I have arthritis, but who cares. As long as I can move my hands I keep on.
Most of you guys are like this.
 
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