April 28th is Superhero Day but Superheroes are not the same today as when I was growing up. George Reeves played Superman for six years but he not what I think of when I think of Superman. For me it was always Christopher Reeve who best fit the "Superman" role.
It's not his acting that impressed me but his life after the horse accident. One moment he was riding a horse and the next moment he woke up in a hospital heavily medicated and delirious. He got news that his first and second vertebrae were destroyed and his spinal cord was damaged. He was paralyzed from the neck down and couldn't breath without a ventilator.
The beautiful thing is that his wife Dana stayed with him through all of this. Suicide crossed his mind but with the support of his wife and family he fought to stay alive. The mental agony he went through was excruciating alone at night in the ICU. He knew that he might might not even survive. The chances were against him. Just then an unexpected friend showed up speaking in a Russian accept. He called himself a proctologist who said he was going to perform a rectal exam on Reeve. This of course was Reeve's old friend from Juliard, Robin Williams. A little bit of comedy and a good laugh will remind you that life is worth the pain and loneliness.
Reeve spent a month in the hospital and months in rehabilitation. It was still difficult for him to breath on his own. He had to exercise for four or five hours a day just to keep his breathing muscles from atrophy. He really wanted to keep his body strong enough for the time a cure for paralysis was ready.
It took five years but he regained the ability to move parts of his fingers and some nerve sensation came back. He lived the rest of his life with 24 hour care, but he said, "Life is worth living." He became busy with activism and writing and film making. He said in 1998:
"Who knows why an accident happens? The key is what do you do afterwards. There is a period of shock and then grieving with confusion and loss. After that, you have two choices. One is to stare out the window and gradually disintegrate. And the other is to mobilize and use all your resources, whatever they may be, to do something positive."
https://abilitymagazine.com/christopher-reeve-the-man-behind-the-cape/
One of his lifetime achievements is his testimony to the senate in support of stem cell research from the patient's own DNA without fertilizing an egg. This kind of stem cell research could advance regenerative medicine. The bill he testified for was passed just one month after Reeve died.
http://www.chrisreevehomepage.com/sp-testimony-bill1758.html
Although Reeve and his wife are not around today The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation continues today dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research.
I cannot say that Christopher Reeve is my hero, but he is one of them. It's a shame that DC hasn't been able to make any good super hero movies since 1978. But who knows, maybe their time will come too.
Today you are my hero :)
