Crossed Wires
The incredible story of Bill Howe from
Blackburn, Lancashire
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) -- My
first job in journalism in the early 70s was with Billy Graham’s
British newspaper, The Christian. Most of my assignments were in
London, so I was pleased when Eric Mayer, the genial deputy editor
asked me if I would go to Blackburn in Lancashire to interview an
extraordinary patient there in a mental hospital.
“This man has written a 15,000-word book,
yet he can’t speak or move his body,” said Eric. “In fact, he’s a
spastic.”
Blackburn was immortalized in the Beatles
song, A Day in the Life on their Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band
album.
The song began:
I heard
the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in
Blackburn, Lancashire
When I got to Blackburn, I didn’t find
any
holes, but I did find the hospital. As I walked into his ward, I was
shocked to see the state of forty-four-year-old Bill Howe. He lay
totally immobile in his cot. “How on earth could he have written a
book?” I asked myself in amazement.
I began to talk with the staff and
discovered
that Bill had been admitted to the hospital as a “spastic imbecile.”
There did not seem to be much hope for Bill who was constantly ill. The
medical report at that time read, “Concentration nil; unable to reply
to anything; no communication.”
Some of the nurses, though, were
convinced
that Bill was more than just a “cabbage.” Christian Charge Nurse, Bill
Waddington, took the initiative and showed him a three-penny bit and a
two-shilling piece and asked him which he would choose. Through grunts
and indications in his eyes, be chose the two-shilling piece. With this
encouragement that there was life in Bill, Nurse Waddington, along with
many others, set out to provide him with the key to a new life --
education.
Amazingly, he began to learn -- first
numbers
and then the alphabet. Bill gradually learned to speak -- through his
left foot. He had a large board with the letters and numbers painted on
it at the end of his bed and he would tap them with his foot.
From there he learned to write by lying
on
his back and painting words with his foot on a stencil. This method
proved to be rather slow and laborious so he eventually spelled out the
request, “I would like a typewriter.” The problem was how could he
possibly type? A shoe for his left foot, which was specially made,
solved this and a wooden peg attached to the sole.
By this method, Bill Howe was able to
write
his book, Crossed Wires, which was published by the Spastics Society in
London, England.
He wrote, “I found that my brain worked,
but not with my limbs. It was like the wires were crossed.”
This amazing author revealed what it
was like to be trapped in a body for all those years without any way to
communicate with the outside world. He explained how he loved classical
music and thought the female nurses were very pretty.
When I returned to London and shared this
amazing story with Norma, she said, “Dan, if it weren’t for those
dedicated nurses caring for Bill, he would never have learned to “talk”
through his feet. They helped a man with no voice to “speak” to the
world.”
She fixed her eyes on mine and modulated
her
voice and I knew that an interesting idea had just occurred to her.
“Have you ever thought that as a journalist you could be used by the
Lord to be a voice for those around the world who have no voice?”
She had certainly put a new thought in my
mind.
A voice for the voiceless,” I mused. “I
wonder if it will ever happen?”
Note: This was first aired as a
commentary on
Dan Wooding’s weekly radio show, Front Page Radio, which is aired each
Sunday at 5:00 PM (Pacific Time) on KWVE 107.9 in Southern California.
The radio station’s website is www.kwve.com.
Dan is now exploring with broadcaster Norm Nelson the possibility of
launching a new TV show called “Crossed Wires” about world missions and
the persecuted church. For more information, contact Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.
| Dan Wooding
is an award winning British
journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is
the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints
in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten
years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC.
Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his
autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron
Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com.
danjuma1@aol.com. (Photo of Dan Wooding: Raul Gonzalez) |
