JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — I met Marvin Berry during my first week at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn. Like everyone who meets Marvin, I liked him from the start. We were roommates for two years. Watching him receive his bachelor’s degree was one of the most extraordinary days of my life.
It’s impossible to miss that Marvin is quadriplegic. It was always interesting to watch how people would react the first time they meet him. Most people have never met somebody with his level of disability and they don’t have any experience on which to draw on. But with his skill as a communicator often just a smile is all it takes to put people at ease.
Marvin’s life changed one mid-summer evening in 1983. He was spending the night at his grandmother’s house with his little brother. The details about the night of his accident are vivid in his mind, except for the most crucial element.
“I didn’t hear the gunshot. When the pistol went off, I was walking by the air-conditioner,” he says.
Marvin Berry (Courtesy of Marvin Berry)
He remembers his trip to the emergency room. He doesn’t remember feeling much pain. Mostly though, he was just confused. Only slowly did he begin to understand what had happened. Marvin’s uncle Doug had accidentally shot him.
After spending almost three months at the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University, Marvin went home. Doctors struggled to explain to him the extent of his injury.
“I never understood at the time what they were telling me,” he says. “In my mind I didn’t know what paralyzed meant. For the longest time, I was convinced that my situation was temporary.”
Marvin credits the Chicago Shriners Hospital for saving his life. He’s adamant that without their intervention he would have died. This hospital is world renowned for treating pediatric spinal cord injuries like Marvin’s. For the next eight years he traveled from his home in Tennessee to Chicago.
“It was hard. Mostly though it was that I just felt alone,” he says.
Although he never kept track of how many trips he made, he’s certain the number was at least 15. One time he stayed in Chicago, by himself, for more than six months while he underwent a series of medical procedures.
“Truthfully, being away from my family was often harder to accept than my injury,” he says.
Eventually Marvin was well enough to return to school and things began to change. His attitude improved. He found a love for learning.
“I became competitive in school work the same way some kids are in sports,” he says. For him this was a wonderful distraction.
Along the way, doctors said it was unlikely he’d live to see 30 —he’s now 38. Marvin continued to pour himself into his education and in 1991 he earned a scholarship to attend Middle Tennessee State University. His time at MTSU was cut short, as once again he required surgery. Over the next five years, he would attend college whenever his health permitted.
In 2002, Marvin enrolled at Austin Peay State University. His goal was to study business. He lived on campus, socialized and joined the fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi. But his health challenged his ambitions.
“I would be the first person in my family to graduate,” he says. “I sort of felt like it wasn’t just important for me, but it was a reward to them for how dedicated they’ve been.”
It wasn’t an easy objective. Marvin spent almost 90 percent of his last semester hospitalized. He had developed a serious pressure wound and was under close observation for an infection. The nearest hospital qualified to care for him was in Nashville, nearly an hour’s drive from the university.
But Marvin’s fraternity brothers organized a plan. Every day, they’d take turns collecting notes from all of his classes and deliver his assignments to the hospital. It required careful planning, but they were committed.
Marvin graduated with his degree in finance in May 2005. It was a powerful moment for those lucky enough to be in his life at the time.
“I don’t have the right words to explain how it felt,” he says. “This had been my goal for 20 years.”
I was challenged here to write about borders and what a border means to me. I think most people would agree that commonly we see borders as barriers.
Sometimes borders separate geographic regions and create countries. The border between what we know and what we struggle to understand brings us science.
Often a language creates borders that complicate communication and hinder understanding between cultures.
But an excellent friend and mentor taught me that sometimes borders are imaginary boundaries that exist only in our minds.
There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.