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"I guess God knows something I don't."
May 8, 2009
by Mark Alden Branch '86
Dan Lewis (center) with his mother and his Yale roommates, Summer 2008.
On July 7, 2007, Dan Lewis '09 was hit by a car while biking through Kansas on a cross-country trip to benefit Habitat for Humanity. He suffered two broken legs and brain injuries and was hospitalized for nearly a year. Two years after the accident, he has limited motor control; he cannot speak but can communicate through a Dynavox computer. In early May, Dan and his parents, Hal and Jeannie Lewis, came to Yale to attend the Saybrook College senior class dinner. Hal Lewis wrote about the weekend on the web page he maintains to update family and friends about Dan's condition. With his permission, we are posting an excerpt here:
Dan, Jeannie and I traveled to New Haven (via LaGuardia) on Saturday, May 2nd, and returned to Denver late Tuesday night, May 5th. The occasion for the trip was an invitation from the master of Saybrook College for Dan and us to attend the Saybrook College senior class dinner, at which time Dan would receive Yale's Bellamy Prize awarded to him by vote of the Yale Council of Deans. We are so grateful to Master Ed Kamens, Dean Mary Miller, and Dean Paul McKinley for extending their invitation and for facilitating our travel and accommodations in New Haven. We are also grateful to Judy York, Yale's Office of Disability Services, for her help in making arrangements and for securing needed supplies and equipment that made our trip and stay comfortable and safe. We also want to thank so many of Dan's friends -- from Saybrook, from Low Strung, and from Alpha Epsilon Pi in particular -- for welcoming and embracing Dan and helping him to feel at home again.
Dan, Jeannie and I had such a great time at Yale. When we arrived at our hotel at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday it was only a matter of minutes before about 20 of Dan's friends arrived in the lobby to greet him. After half an hour, they politely asked if they could take Dan out. And so they did -- that night and the next night and the next as well. It was so heartwarming to see how this wonderful group of friends surrounded Dan with support and love. Of course, the key event was the Baccalaureate Banquet and surrounding events late Monday afternoon and into the evening. In his introduction to the Bellamy Prize, Master Kamens noted: "High spirits, capacity for enjoyment, integrity, and loyalty: these are the attributes recognized by the Bellamy Prize." When a few paragraphs later Dan's name was announced, the seniors gave Dan a standing ovation. Then Jeannie read for Dan a set of thoughts that Dan had composed over a series of sessions with his speech/language therapist, Deb Guckes, and his psychologist, Dr. Toby Huston. Dan asked that his thoughts be read word for word rather than edited in any way (he also asked that they be posted but only after the trip was completed). So here are Dan's words:
"If I even deserve this award I understand I can never dare to hope to tell about my life now.
After my accident, I did not think I would ever really talk.
Can I live ego free?
I do not hunger for whole when I am alone.
When night comes I sometimes feel no pain.
I guess God knows something I don't.
I've never seen a test men have never overcome."
The travel was not easy for Dan -- about a 10- or 11-hour day of travel each way with several difficult transfers and none of the comforts of home. But Dan stayed calm and strong without complaint or any expression of discomfort. We are so proud of what Dan has accomplished thus far and though we know that progress will be painfully slow ("like watching grass grow," Jeannie likes to remind us) we know he has the spirit to keep moving forward. 
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