[nagdu] USA Today Article

Margo and Arrow margo.downey at verizon.net
Fri Jul 31 14:36:05 UTC 2009


What a wonderful article. Thanks for posting it.

margo and Arrow
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ann Chiappetta" <dungarees at optonline.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 8:40 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] USA Today Article


> Thanks, this was great.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "sblanjones11" <sblanjones11 at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "sblanjones11" <sblanjones11 at sbcglobal.net>
> Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 10:19 PM
> Subject: [nagdu] USA Today Article
>
>
>>A most interesting article about a remarkable man who sought the help of a
>> guide dog, and had to overcome an almost insufferable fear of dogs to do 
>> it!
>> Blinded by Nazis, guided by a dog
>>
>> Sharon L. Peters
>>
>> USA TODAY
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Max Edelman, a sprightly gentleman with a potent laugh, huge social 
>> network
>> and vast array of interests, surges through life. At 86, he figures he's 
>> got
>> too much to do to slow down. Blind for decades, he receives a little help
>> from Tobin, a placid black Lab.
>>
>> Like each of the thousands of service dogs, Tobin has been bred and 
>> trained
>> to help keep his owner safe and independent. And like the thousands of
>> people who are paired without charge with a dog, Edelman has undergone
>> training to make the most of the union.
>>
>> But Edelman was far from typical when, in 1990, he traveled from his home 
>> in
>> Lyndhurst, Ohio, to Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., 
>> to
>> get his first-ever guide dog. For one thing, he was nearly 70. Back then,
>> says Guiding Eyes' Graham Buck, almost all clients were much younger, 
>> mostly
>> kids blind as a result of premature births.
>>
>> But it wasn't Edelman's age that was the biggest challenge. It was his 
>> back
>> story.
>>
>> The things he'd seen and endured would have destroyed most men -- and 
>> did,
>> in fact, kill millions. He suffered years of starvation and beatings and
>> spirit-crushing cruelty, including an eight-day forced march just before 
>> the
>> U.S. Army arrived to liberate the German camps. He spent 192 grueling 
>> hours
>> without food or water, during which 1,700 of the 2,500 prisoners 
>> collapsed
>> and were shot by the side of the road.
>>
>> Somehow Edelman, a Jew sent to Nazi concentration camps when he was 17 
>> and
>> freed at 22, managed to survive. He was blinded in a vicious beating by
>> guards --"for no real reason. It was sport for them, they enjoyed 
>> inflicting
>> pain" -- months before his rescue.
>>
>> He was trained as a physical therapist, married and immigrated to the USA 
>> in
>> 1951. He landed a job in the X-ray department at the Cleveland Clinic and
>> built a life -- more or less successfully moving beyond the memories of 
>> the
>> camps, including the death of his father.
>>
>> He coped reasonably well with survivor guilt and was largely able, except 
>> at
>> night when nightmares invaded his sleep, to deflect the awful images that
>> were the last he would actually see.
>>
>> There was one thing he couldn't vanquish: the memory of one night in the
>> camp.
>>
>> The commandant was holding a party for like-minded people. As part of the
>> evening's entertainment, he ordered that several prisoners be lined up.
>> Edelman was among them. The commandant eyed the men, made a decision 
>> about
>> who would die and ordered his massive German shepherd to attack. The dog
>> lunged, grabbed the prisoner by the throat and killed him.
>>
>>>From that night forward, Edelman's fear of dogs was intractable.
>>
>> But when he retired, he wanted to relieve his wife of the job of taking 
>> him
>> everywhere he wanted to go. A guide dog would be ideal.
>>
>> He mustered his courage, attended the 26-day Guiding Eyes training, was
>> coached patiently through his dog phobia, and went home with Calvin, a
>> chocolate Lab.
>>
>> The two had the skills to mesh as a team, but Edelman couldn't connect,
>> didn't really know how to trust the animal. He was appreciative of Calvin 
>> as
>> a "tool to get around," he says, but formed no bond. Guiding Eyes experts
>> provided additional help.
>>
>> "If I failed at this, it would not be for lack of effort," he says.
>>
>> But Calvin knew something was off. The dog had been around people all of 
>> his
>> two years; he knew how things were supposed to be, and this wasn't it. He
>> lost weight and was depressed. The vet said he sensed Edelman's emotional
>> distance.
>>
>> One day, at a crosswalk, Edelman heard the traffic stop and gave Calvin 
>> the
>> "forward" command. A driver made a sudden, sharp right turn and was upon 
>> the
>> two without warning.
>>
>> Watchful Calvin stopped instantly, and the two returned to the sidewalk. 
>> "He
>> had saved both of us from serious injury," Edelman says. He hugged 
>> Calvin,
>> and the barrier dissolved. "From that day on it was love. We both
>> blossomed."
>>
>> Calvin served him well for nine years and retired with an adoptive 
>> family.
>> Then came Silas, a yellow Lab who forged a solid bond with Edelman; he 
>> died
>> last year. Edelman misses Silas deeply. "When we were on our 3-mile walks
>> and I'd get lost in thought and have no idea where we were, he'd get me
>> home."
>>
>> But he and Tobin, who were paired earlier this month, are bonding. Last
>> week, the dog accompanied Edelman to a college campus where he spoke 
>> about
>> the Holocaust. Edelman accepts two or more such invitations most weeks,
>> after decades of silence. "Survivors are few in number now," he says, "so 
>> we
>> have to bear a larger load."
>>
>> Tobin eases the way.
>>
>> To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to 
>> http://www.usatoday.com
>>
>> Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
>>
>>
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