The other day, my mom and I were talking about Somewhere in Time, our favorite of Christopher Reeve’s movies.  When I looked it up online, I realized that the 5-year anniversary of Christopher Reeve’s death was earlier this month, on October 10th.

Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a horseback riding accident in 1995.  Despite how much he hated being compared to his role as Superman, he showed what an inner reserve of strength he had when his accident didn’t ruin his life — only motivated him to become involved in promoting neurological research in order to try to find a cure for those paralyzed by spinal cord injuries.

At the time of Reeve’s accident, I didn’t ride, so I never made any connection between his injury and what could happen to me.  Now, however, I have a horse I ride regularly, and I’ve even had a few (relatively harmless) falls.  When I think of how an accident could change my life and distort all my hopes and dreams, paralysis  is the second scariest for me, right after blindness.  (I love to read and I’m a writer by profession, so blindness would be the absolute scariest for me.)  I don’t even know how we could operate a wheelchair lift in our parking area, or install stair lifts on our basement and porch stairs.

Would I be able to face such a life-changing injury with as much grace and inner strength as Christopher Reeve?  I don’t know, but I sure hope I would!

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