View From the Chair

I woke up Sunday morning sleeping on my left side, facing the window, and looking at a bright sunny day. My personal care assistant would be here in about an hour to help me up out of bed and get ready for the day. Body surfing can be fun, but also dangerous . As I stared out the window and listened to the birds chirping, I thought about being paralyzed for the past 40 years, since breaking my neck in a surfing accident on Condado Beach in Puerto Rico . I was 25 years old at the time of my accident and employed by the IBM Corporation. I was also an assistant swimming coach at the City College of New York, and working for my childhood coach and mentor Marcelino Rodriguez, whom I met at the St. Mary's Park Recreation Center in the Bronx, New York. At that time, I was 11 years-old, and wanted to learn how to swim. Actually, my brother Victor and I were encouraged to learn how to swim by our grandfather, after our Dad died at the young age of 28. For 40 years I have alterna